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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 
THE DETROIT 
INSTITUTE OF ARTS 


OF THE 


CITY OF DETROIT 


By 
W. R. VALENTINER 


and 
CLYDE H. BURROUGHS 


MCMXXVII 


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PREFACE 


This HANDBooK oF THE MuszuM CoLLEc- 
TIONS 25 designed with a twofold purpose. It is 
hoped that it will be useful to the visitor as a 
museum guide, enabling him to see the museum 
collectzons in the most logical way and to locate 
the department or the objects in which he is inter- 
ested; it has also been our aim to make of it 
something of a related story of the history of art, 
so that the collections will break upon the con- 
sciousness of the average visitor in a sequential 
ana intelligible manner. 


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CONTENTS 


Preface Vv 
Introduction xi 


European ArT 


European Art, XIX Century 13 
English Art, XVIII Century 14 
French Art, XVIII Century rs 
Dutch Art, XVII Century 16 
Northern Baroque, XVII Century (Dutch, 
English, German) 17 


Northern Baroque, XVII Century (Flemish, 
Dutch, German) 19 


Southern Baroque, XVII Century (France, 
Spain, Italy) 20 


Italian High Renaissance, XVI Century 22 
Italian Early Renaissance, XV Century 23 
Court 25 
Italian Gothic Art, XIV and XV Centuries 26 


Early Christian, Byzantine, and Italian 
Romanesque Art 29 


Hall of Northern Gothic Art, a.p. 1250-1520 31 


Flemish, German, and French Art, 
XV and XVI Centuries 34 


Northern Romanesque Art, A.p.1000-1250 36 
Prehistoric Art (Europe, Egypt, America) 38 
Roman Art, 600 B.c.—a.p. 300 38 
Greek Art, 600 B.c.—100 B.c. 40 


ix 


CONTENTS 


Asiatic ART 
Egyptian Art, 3000-100 s.c. 
Near Eastern Art (Turkey and Persia) 
Indian and Indonesian Art 
Garden Court 
Japanese Art 


Chinese Art, Ming Period to Modern 
Times 


Chinese Art, Earliest Period to Yuan 
Dynasty 


Primitive American, African and Pacific 
Art 


AMERICAN ART 
Colonial Kitchen 
Mid Eighteenth Century Dining Room 
Whitby Hall 
Room of the Early Republic 
American Art, XIX Century 
Local Art 
American Art, Last Quarter XIX Century 


American Art, Last Quarter XIX Century 
(Continued) 


Modern American Art 


Locations 


43 
45 
48 
51 
52 


52 


52 


57 


63 
64 
66 
67 
69 
72 
75 


78 
79 
84 


INTRODUCTION 


PON entering the Museum we have before us a large re- 
U ception hall with a garden court behind it and, follow- 
ing the axis of the building, at the farther end the auditorium. 
The collections are distributed on the main floor in the two 
wings at the right and left of the large hall and in the galleries 
adjoining the garden court: the European section in the wing 
to the right; the American in the wing to the left; and the 
Asiatic in the farther end of the building at either side of 
the garden. The exhibitions are arranged according to 
periods and countries and lead backward in chronological 
order from the art of the present day which is shown in the 
two galleries at cither side of the entrance: to the right 
European art, to the left American. 

The galleries in the European section are grouped about 
an open court; the corresponding space in the American 
wing is taken up by three galleries for temporary exhibi- 
tions, entered at the left of the large hall. The basement or 
ground floor is in the main devoted to study rooms. 

Whether we begin our walk at the right or left of the 
entrance, we are led back to the art of other ages and coun- 
tries in such a way that when the entire circuit is completed, 
we receive a clear impression of the development of the arts 
in the most important epochs in the history of mankind. 
Since the part which the different countries played in the 
general development differs widely in importance, and since 
outstanding epochs alternate with periods of low ebb, an 
attempt has been made to represent only the most important 
phases with examples of the art of the country or countries 
which played the leading role in these epochs. 

As the character of a period can be visualized only by a 


xi 


INTRODUCTION 


knowledge of all fields in which art expresses itself, a mixed 
exhibition of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts has 
been chosen for exhibition in the different rooms. 

The Guide is arranged on the assumption that the visitor will 
begin his walk in Gallery I of the European section and will 
make a complete circuit of the main floor, which will take 
him successively through the galleries of European, Asiatic 
and American art. The museum building is of moderate size 
and we have endeavored to present the impression of a well- 
selected private collection, where the different objects of 
one epoch are shown grouped together in a series of rooms 
which have more or less the atmosphere of a private home. 
The number of exhibited objects has been reduced to those 
of outstanding importance. 

The guide has been prepared for publication by W. R. 
Valentiner and Clyde H. Burroughs in collaboration with 
Alvan C. Eastman and Josephine Walther. Dr. Valentiner 
is the author of the European section and with the assist- 
ance of Mr. Eastman of the Asiatic section. Mr. Burroughs, 
with Miss Walther’s notes on the decorative arts, is the 
author of the American section. Miss Walther has also lent 
valuable assistance in editing the material. 


——_ a 


AUNLNGA IIAX ‘LUV HSITONG 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


GALLERY 1 
European Art, XIX Century 


Let us begin our walk at the right, entering the long 
gallery of European art of the nineteenth and the beginning 
of the twentieth century. While a number of pieces of sculp- 
ture and decorative arts are shown in cases and on pedestals 
along the windows, the art of painting, which in this period 
passed rapidly through many stages, producing toward the 
end of the century an entirely new vision with the art of 
Impressionism, stands out preeminently. France takes the 
lead, no other country of Europe having produced so great 
a series of painters during this period. Excellent works of 
figure painting by two of the geniuses of the century, 
Drcas and Renoir, and characteristic works of landscape 
att by such masters of the new style as Monet, Sister, 
Bounin, Pissarro, Martin, and Moret, introduce us to the 
Impressionist School of painting. (A work by the greatest 
sculptor of the Impressionistic Age, Rop1n’s splendid 
Thinker, is shown in the reception hall.) If we go back to the 
middle of the nineteenth century, we find a painting by the 
first great realistic painter, Coursrt, his Midday Dream, an 
important work of his earlier period. With such masters as 
Troyon (two fine examples), Rousszau, Diaz, Dupre and 
Rosa Bonneur, we come to the Barbizon school and the 
period of 1830-50. The greatest representatives of the 
Romantic age which preceded it, DeLacrorx and GericawLt, 
afe missing, but we receive an idea of their tendencies 
through two works by a late follower, EucENs Isaney. The 
classical epoch, initiated by Jacquzs Louis Davip at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, is given representation 
in three examples: two studies by this master, painted late 
in his career (1824), repetitions of two of the figures for one 
of the works upon which his early fame was built, The Rape 
of the Sabines, of 1799, and a charming family group (1812) 
by one of his pupils, Louis ANDRE Boucuer. 


13 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


Among other countries of the continent we find Central 
Europe represented in only one work, The Last Hours of 
Mozart, by the outstanding Hungarian artist of the Romantic 
epoch, Muncasxy, while we receive an idea of the de- 
velopment of the decorative arts of the Scandinavian coun- 
tries, in a casual way, in glass, silver and enamel work from 
Sweden and Denmark. 

Of nineteenth century Dutch art, we find two paintings 
by its best genre painter, Josrr Israzzs, and of the Belgian 
art of this period three bronze statues by its most representa- 
tive sculptor, Constantin Meunier. Typically impression- 
istic also are two bronze statuettes by the Russian sculptor, 
Paut TROUBETZKOY. 

Two examples of the Pre-Raphaelites, the outstanding 
English school of the middle of the nineteenth century, are 
shown in a large tapestry after BurNE-JoNEs, woven at 
the Morris Looms, and a fine watercolor by Rosset: below 
the middle window. 


GALLERY 2 
English Art, XVIII Century 


Upon entering the next gallery, the corner room, we are 
surrounded by English art of the eighteenth century, which 
had such an important influence on the modern epochs, 
especially in portrait painting and the art of furniture, the 
two fields in which this art especially excels. Among the 
great series of portrait painters of the second half of the 
eighteenth and the first decades of the nineteenth century, we 
find the eminent Scottish painter, RazBuRN, represented by a 
fascinating portrait of Sir David Erskine, and Hoppner by a 
portrait of Sir Thomas Hardwicke. These two artists be- 
longed to the younger generation of this great period. Of 
the three great masters of the older generation, Romney is 
still missing, but RzeyNotps and GarnsporouGH are shown: 
the first in a portrait of Sir Brooke Boothby, and a woman in 
blue (Mrs. Chalmers), belonging to his early period; 


14 


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AUNLNADS IIIAX ‘LUV HONAW 


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EUROPEAN SECTION 


GarnsporoucH, who may be said to be the greatest of all 
English artists, in another portrait of a woman in blue 
(Mrs. Mead), also of his early period and painted in a some- 
what tight manner, but already showing the charm of his 
work. Eighteenth century art before Reynolds can be studied 
in a portrait of Princess Amelia by the court painter, 
ZOFFANY, on the same wall, and on the opposite wall in 
paintings by Hupson, the master of Reynolds; HicumorE 
(portrait of a girl); and the great Hocartu, the earliest of 
this series, whose art shows clearly the tradition created by 
Van Dyck and his school. 

Along the walls we find examples of the art of furniture 
contemporary with the portraits on exhibition: on the west 
side examples of the Sheraton and Adam period; on the north 
side a mirror, card tables and chairs in the Chippendale 
style, and on the east, examples of the Carolean period, a 
lacquered cabinet and chairs; while we find the first types 
of the Oak Age in the rooms of seventeenth century Dutch 
art, with which this style is closely connected. 


GALLERY 3 


French Art, XVIII Century 


The two European countries which produced the greatest 
art during the eighteenth century were England and France. 
France, which indeed led in all forms of decorative arts, is 
represented in an excellent manner by a paneled room from 
Amiens, executed in the period of Louis XVI. The consoles 
show in their straightened curves and classical motives the 
Louis XVI style of the seventies and eighties of the eight- 
eenth century, while the exquisite carvings on the doors 
and mirror frames still retain the elegant light curves of the 
real Rococo. With the exception of the Aubusson carpet on 
the floor, and the bench of the Louis XV style in the hall, 
the objects furnishing this room are loans. 

Through the windows on the right we look into a corri- 


15 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


dor with garden framework, in the center of which is the 
excellent bronze statue of Louis XIV by Grrarpon, a 
small reproduction from his workshop of the destroyed life- 
sized statue formerly in the Place Vendéme. Only two 
paintings are exhibited so far in this room, an allegorical 
painting in the style of Francois Lz Moyne and a delicately- 
painted still life by Cuarprn, the greatest still life painter 
of France, who developed his art from the Dutch seven- 
teenth century painters. 


GALLERY 4 
Dutch Art, XVII Century 


The next great epoch preceding this is represented by 
Dutch and Flemish seventeenth century art, both countries 
helping greatly in the building up of the French and English 
eighteenth century style. Examples of the art of these two 
countries are shown in the adjoining galleries, the door to 
the left leading to the Dutch rooms, the one in front to the 
Northern Baroque, which contains mainly Dutch and Flemish 
paintings. We follow the first, leading to the hall with 
staircase in the Dutch seventeenth century style. We enter 
the small gallery on the lower floor which contains a few 
of the Museum’s most important masterpieces of the Rem- 
brandt epoch. Outstanding are works by the two leading 
personalities in Holland in the seventeenth century, Frans 
Hats, born in 1584, representing the first epoch, and 
REMBRANDT, born in 1606, the second. Frans Hats is rep- 
resented by a woman’s portrait, painted in 1634, when the 
artist was at the height of his fame in Holland, and we are 
introduced to the great art of RemBranopt by a large com- 
position painted in his workshop in his first Amsterdam 
epoch (about 1635), The Death of Lucretia, and one of his 
masterpieces of religious subjects, The Visitation, painted in 
his middle period (1640), just before The Night Watch, com- 
bining with an exquisite execution and a fully developed 


16 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


chiaroscuro, the extraordinary expression of religious senti- 
ment and character for which this artist is famous. The 
portrait study of an old man is a characteristic work of one 
of the direct pupils of Rembrandt in the forties of the seven- 
teenth century. 

Besides the works connected with the two greatest mas- 
ters, there is a portrait of a lady by Jan De Bray, one of the 
Haarlem followers of Frans Hals, and a landscape by 
AELBERT Cuyp, the contemporary of Rembrandt, who re- 
flects his warm glowing light in out-of-door scenes. 

Before going to the next room, which leads us back to the 
origin of this art, the early Flemish and Dutch masters of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, we go up the staircase to 
study the development of Dutch art in the Rembrandt period 
in a number of works by the minor artists in portrait, land- 
scape, genre and still life. 

Two excellent examples of the art of still life painting, one 
of the fields created and developed to a high standard in 
Holland, are exhibited on the staircase wall: a large decora- 
tive painting by Jan Weenrx and a finely-executed work by 
Wittem Karr, who may be said to be the best still life 
painter of the seventeenth century. 


GALLERIES 5 AND 6 
Northern Baroque, XVII Century 
(Dutch, English, German) 


In the two rooms upstairs the art of the same Baroque 
Epoch is shown in examples from different northern coun- 
tries: the paintings nearly all of Dutch origin, with the 
exception of three by Flemish artists; the furniture mostly 
English, with a few German pieces of the same epoch; and 
the silver of Danish and German workmanship. We could 
well imagine that such an ensemble actually existed, for 
instance in England, where the art of painting was not yet 


VW 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


on the high level that it was in the Low Countries and 
where paintings and other art objects were often imported 
from the continent. 

The two portraits which we observe first,—the one in the 
center of the large gallery, the other visible through the door 
of the next room,—are works by the two Amsterdam 
painters, Nicoxazs Extas, the artist who led in the por- 
traiture of this school before Rembrandt arrived, and 
BarTHOLOMEUs VAN Der Hexst, Rembrandt’s rival in 
Amsterdam during this period. 

We become more familiar with Dutch landscape painting 
through a large canal scene by Satomon RuyspazEt who, to- 
gether with Van Goyen, was representative of the Haarlem 
school of the time of Frans Hals; two moonlight scenes by 
Arrt Van Der Neer, of the Rembrandt epoch; and a num- 
ber of landscapes by artists such as Jan Boru, WitLEM 
Heuscu, ApRIAEN Van De Vexps, Karet DujarpiIn and 
Jan Wrnants, who traveled in Italy or at least adopted the 
scenery and the glowing atmosphere of the southern sky. 

Among the best genre painters we meet JAN STEEN, in a 
boisterous tavern scene, and in the next room Pieter Dr 
Hoocu, with one of his charming interiors depicting the 
home life of the Dutch bourgeoisie. Other genre scenes by 
the Leiden artists, BREKELENKAM and Gerrit LUNDENs, 
show other sides of the activity of the Dutch housewife. 
The architectural paintings show the difference in style be- 
tween the Flemish masters of this type, e. g. PrztreR NEErs 
and Henpricx SrrENwyck, who give us views hard in out- 
line and of cold appearance, and the Dutch masters like 
Jacos Bercxueype, Henprick Van Vurer and EMMANUEL 
Dz Wirte, with their warm, richly-colored representations 
of church interiors and exteriors. 

The English Age of Oak is represented in several types of 
furniture: a large table of the late Elizabethan period, and an 
early Jacobean buffet and side table. In the next room a 
Dutch oak cabinet of the Rembrandt epoch, inlaid with 


18 


(ANVWUED SAINVTIOY ‘FONVU,J) AUNLNAD AX ‘andOUuvVa NUFHLUON 


avr ! 
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; x 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


mahogany, holds the most important place. On top of it are 
a few specimens of Delft pottery. A number of tiles of this 
important type of faience are inlaid in the Dutch table of the 
same date, while the iron chest represents one of the earliest 
types of money coffers. The leather-covered chairs placed 
along the English table, and the red lacquered cabinet (an 
imitation of Chinese lacquer) are of seventeenth century 
German workmanship. The heavy forms and decoration of 
the silver goblets and tankards upon the table show what 
a close relation existed in the style of ornament during the 
Baroque Ageinthecountries around the Northand Baltic seas. 


GALLERY 7 


Northern Baroque, XVII Century 
(Flemish, Dutch, German) 


We now return to the French eighteenth-century room 
and pass through the other doorway, which leads logically 
to the great Flemish master, Rusens, the origin of early 
eighteenth century French painting as expressed in the art of 
Watteau, for example. In this room of the Northern Baroque, 
we find combined the works of the Flemish seventeenth 
century school and a few masterpieces of Dutch landscape 
art. The room itself, with its recessed windows, reminds 
us of the rooms in the Flemish baroque style that we 
find, for instance, in the Musée Plantin in Antwerp. In the 
windows are late sixteenth and seventeenth century stained 
glass panels from Germany and Switzerland. A large Biblical 
composition, Abigail Meeting David with Presents, introduces 
us to the great pompous art of Rubens. It is executed in the 
free style of his later period, by his own hand, not as in so 
many other works under his name, by pupils after his 
sketches. We encounter his brilliant art of portraiture in the 
portrait of his brother Philip, a work of his early period. 
His influence upon his great pupil Van Dycx is recognized 
in studying the two portraits by Van Dyck’s hand: one a 
portrait of a fellow student in Rubens’s atelier, Jan Wildens, 


19 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


and his wife, painted when Van Dyck was still connected 
with Rubens, the other a portrait of the Marchesa Spinola, 
belonging to his Italian period, just before he reached the 
height of the aristocratic portrait art in which he became 
the innovator and leader in the following century. 

The other painters in Flanders in the seventeenth century 
cannot be compared with these two outstanding figures, 
although Corneuis De Vos, with his more bourgeois-like 
types, is not without interest, while among the genre 
painters, Davin TeN1ERs Tue YounceER holds a somewhat 
exaggerated traditional reputation. 

In contrast to the rather conventional and often superficial 
style of Flemish landscape painting, as exemplified by 
Teniers’s small outdoor scene, we observe the solidity and 
seriousness of Dutch landscape art in three examples on the 
main wall opposite the Rubens paintings. The Cemetery by 
Jacos Van Ruispazt, in the center, the largest painting 
known by this artist, is a most carefully-planned and in- 
tensely-felt composition of his best period, the sixties of the 
seventeenth century, and is a work revealing the artist's 
accurate observation of nature and masterly though un- 
obtrusive technique. The small landscape to the left is by his 
great pupil Hossema. While in no way an outstanding 
work by this master, it is interesting as his earliest dated 
picture (1658), painted when the artist was but twenty 
years of age. The Calm Sea, to the right, is by Simon DE 
VureGeEr and shows this excellent marine painter at his best. 
It is interesting to compare it with the fine little sea paint- 
ing in Gallery 4 by his famous pupil, Wittem Van DE 
VeLDE the younger. 


GALLERY 8 


Southen Baroque, XVII Century 
(France, Spain, Italy) 


The main wall exemplifies Spanish religious art of the 
epoch of the Counter-Reformation and Jesuit influence, in 


20 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


The Assumption of the Virgin, by Muritxo, a pleasing example 
in soft tones of the art of this popular master. While works 
by the greatest Spanish painter, Velasquez, are still missing, 
we receive an impression of the chiaroscuro painting of the 
two masters of this century who rank in importance next 
to him: ZurBaRAN, with a realistic portrait of a girl in red; 
and Ripera, with a strong head of a bearded man, remind- 
ing us that we are in the Rembrandt epoch. The same 
strong contrast of light and shadow which was character- 
istic of the Baroque Age throughout Europe, we find in 
The Last Supper by Pousstn, the famous classicist of France, 
painted in his late years (dated 1661), and in GuErciNno’s 
Christ and the Woman of Samaria, a work under the influence 
of Caravaggio, the great Italian painter who was first to 
introduce the strongly-expressed chiaroscuro style. 

Italy was the country in which baroque painting was first 
developed and where it lingered longest. With Tizpoxo, 
the great Venetian master, the last genius Italy has produced 
since the Renaissance, we are already in the eighteenth 
century. The color scheme in Alexander and the Family of 
Darius, a most brilliant example of his brush, has become 
light and shadowless, like eighteenth-century art, but his 
forms, compared with contemporary French paintings, are 
still typically Italian baroque. The derivation of his art is 
obvious in the fascinating little sketch by his master, 
SEBASTIANO Ricci, whose art, as shown in this instance, 
connects Paolo Veronese with Tiepolo. 

How early baroque art in sculpture started in Italy, may 
be seen in the Madonna in terracotta by the Venetian, 
Jacoro SANsovino, and the bronze group, The Rape of the 
Sabines, by GiovaNNI DA Botoena, both masters strongly 
influenced by Michelangelo, the actual creator of the 
baroque style in sculpture and architecture in the second 
half of the sixteenth century. 


21 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


GALLERY 9 
Italian High Renaissance, XVI Century 


We pass on now to the corner room, the first of the three 
Italian galleries, which are devoted chiefly to the great art 
of the Italian Renaissance, with its optimism and light and 
bright worldliness, its awakened sense of individuality, and 
its new desire for luxury, expressed in church decoration as 
well as in the interiors of palaces. In the present gallery we 
find works of the High Renaissance (sixteenth century), 
especially of Venice. The ceiling contains one of those 
magnificent palace decorations for which TiNToRETTO, one 
of the greatest wall decorators of all times, is famous. The 
painting, originally in the Palazzo Barbo a San Pantaleone 
in Venice, represents, according to a contemporary descrip- 
tion, ‘‘a heaven with gods and symbols of the things about 
which the minds of men dream during sleep’’ (fame, love 
and wealth). In his endeavor to combine the style of 
Michelangelo with that of Titian,— the form of the one 
with the color of the other,—he may be said to express the 
last triumph of Renaissance art. In the paintings around the 
walls we find some of the best-known names of the North 
Italian High Renaissance: CorreGcio, SEBASTIANO DEL 
Piomso, Parma Veccuio, Tit1AN, and even RAPHAEL, to 
whose earliest period the two small predelle with scenes 
from the life of St. Nicolas of Tolentino may be attributed. 
Correceio's Marriage of St. Catherine is a work of the earlier 
period of this master, but one that shows him already in his 
full power in a composition of an extraordinary rhythmical 
swing and beautifully-arranged light and shadow scheme. 
A remarkable creation of the first decade of the Venetian 
High Renaissance is the three-figure painting, a combined 
work of Titian, Giorgione and Sebastiano del Piombo. 
In this painting the woman at the left shows the charac- 
teristics of Titian’s early style, while in the superb portrait, 
Man with a Flute, painted nearly half a century later, the 


22 


(ATVI ‘NIVdSs “AONV UL ) AUNLNAS LAX SANOOUVA NUAHLNAOS 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


master’s consummate artistry is revealed at its height. 
Palma Vecchio, the co-disciple of Titian in Bellini’s work- 
shop, is represented in two biblical compositions with 
charming landscape background, showing his derivation 
from Giorgione, while Titian’s voluptuous and brilliant 
style lives in the two works of his followers, Satyr and 
Nymph, and the half-length figure of a Venetian beauty at- 
tributed to Paris Borponz. 

The marble statue representing a boy holding a goose is a 
charming example from the school of Michelangelo, prob- 
ably by Domenico Pocern1, and reminds us of this master’s 
fountain sculptures in the Giardino Boboli at Florence. Of 
the great MicueLaNceto himself we are able to show at 
least a drawing (below window), a powerful study for 
some of the figures on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. 


GALLERY 10 
Italian Early Renaissance 


The wall decoration in this gallery and the different types 
of furniture (wall paneling, chests, choir stalls, benches and 
chairs) suggest the surroundings among which flourished 
the finest flowering of the culture of this period, the painters 
and sculptors of Venice and Florence. In the center of the 
wall through which we entered, we observe five excellent 
examples of the colorful Venetian painting of this period, 
connecting this part of the collection with the High 
Renaissance room in which the later Venetian art played so 
important a part. Giovanni Bellini, the master of Giorgione 
and Titian, is not yet represented, but in the Madonnas by 
Cima and Previraui and the two brilliantly-colored panels 
with saints, ascribed to CuristorFANO Case of Parma, we 
find an expression of his art in works by masters directly in- 
fluenced by him, while in the Pieta by Canto CrivELLI we meet 
with an artist of considerable originality in a composition of 
unusual dramatic force and extraordinarily precise and 


23 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


plastic design. The art of the neighboring city of Venice, 
Verona, is represented on the other walls by two Madonnas, 
showing the characteristic manner of this school, one an 
early example, a painting by the Mazrstro pret GAROFANI 
(master of the pinks), the other in the developed style of 
GIovANNI Francesco Carotto. Adjacent to the choir stalls 
will be found a charming example of the best Bolognese 
artist of the epoch, the goldsmith-painter, Francesco 
Francia. While the importance of Umbria in the art move- 
ment of central Italy is only touched upon in a stone relief 
from the palace at Urbino representing the Duke Federigo 
and his son Guidobaldo—the one the patron of Piero della 
Francesca, the other of Raphael—we find a more adequate 
representation of north Italian sculpture in the works of 
such excellent Paduan masters as BELLANo (a marble relief 
of the Madonna), and Minetx (the terra cotta statue of 
St. John the Baptist), and of the best Milanese sculptor of 
the time, AMapbEo (a marble relief of two saints), all of 
these artists reflecting clearly the influence of the greatest 
sculptor of the fifteenth century, Donatello. With Donatello 
we are led to Florence, the center of early Italian Renais- 
sance art, where we feel his influence in the great series of 
important sculptors of the second half of the fifteenth 
century. 

But while in northern Italian sculpture the severeand hard 
style of his late Paduan epoch was adopted by his followers, 
in the atmosphere of Florence the charm of his earlier works 
was more in accord with the brilliant culture of that city. 
The Christchild (above the choirstalls), a stucco replica 
of the marble statue from the tabernacle in San Lorenzo, 
gives only a slight idea of the delicate art of DestpER10 DA 
SETTIGNANO. BENEDETTO DA Mayano is characteristically 
represented in the expressive terra cotta bust of St. John the 
Baptist, and a delightful marble composition of two angels 
holding the coat of arms of the Minerbetti family (below 


24 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


altar in next room). Of the great portrait art of Mrno pa 
FIEsoLEe we receive a splendid impression in the marble bust 
of a young Florentine lady. 

The Museum owns so far only a few examples of Florentine 
painting (on the wall opposite and to right of our entrance), 
giving only a vague idea of this wonderful art. While two 
Madonna paintings of the school of Fra Filippo, by Tue 
Master OF THE SAN MiniatTo Atrarpiece and Pier Fran- 
cEsco FiorENTINO, reflect his naive and cheerful style, we see 
in the Resurrected Christ one of the intensely-felt compositions 
of Borricett1 from the beginning of his mature period, 
and in a vividly expressed scene, St. Michael Combating the 
Devils, a predella from the altarpiece in the Uffizi by the 
gteat narrator and portrait painter of the end of the Quat- 
trocento, Domenico GHIRLANDAIO. 


Court 


A door on the west wall of this gallery opens to the court, 
and before going on we step outside for a moment to ob- 
tain an impression of the exterior architectural disposition 
of the different period rooms surrounding the court. Op- 
posite to us are the Dutch rooms, in two storeys, with win- 
dows ending in flat baroque curves; to the left a balcony 
with the heavy mouldings of the Flemish baroque .The 
windows on the side on which we are standing, round- 
arched and of classical treatment, characterize the Italian 
Renaissance, as does also the staircase which leads into the 
court, reminding us of the famous staircase in the Bargello 
(Museo Nazionale) in Florence. To the right are the three 
high double windows of the Gothic hall, with the original 
Gothic chapel of the fifteenth century in the right corner. 
We should not fail to observe the coats of arms built into 
the walls of the court on all four sides, especially on the side 
of the Italian Renaissance, most of them coming from Italy 
and belonging to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Sev- 


25 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


eral are of finest Renaissance design and execution, the work 
of Tuscan, especially Florentine, sculptors of the epoch of 
Donatello, such as the large shield with the rampant griffin 
of the Martelli above the coat of arms of the Medici with 
its six balls and that of the Rucellai family. 

Among the columns placed about the edge of the garden 
and along the walls are several of Venetian Gothic style, 
and to this type belong also the two well-heads in the center 
of the garden and on the north wall, as well as the marble 
window built into the wall at the foot of the staircase which 
frames a French Gothic Madonna of the fifteenth century, 
showing that in Venice the Gothic style was of longer 
duration than in other parts of Italy. 

The two columns of green granite at either side of the 
garden bearing Roman busts and the two of red granite 
under the stairway at either side of the Roman sarcophagus, 
belong to the Roman classical epoch, the one bearing a mar- 
ble figure of a child holding a puppy coming from Pompeii. 


Gaxuery lI 
Italian Gothic Art, XIV and XV Centuries 


Usually only the fourteenth century is regarded as the 
epoch of Gothic art in Italy, but in countries apart from 
the leading art centers, and even there with certain con- 
servative personalities, we find the Gothic feeling prevailing 
far into the fifteenth century. A characteristic example of 
this retardative art in Florence is the altar by Nert v1 
Biccr occupying the center space on the main wall. Al- 
though it was executed as late as 1470, at the time of Botti- 
celli and the young Leonardo, it retains still the medieval 
style of composition, with its brilliantly-colored decorative 
planes, its large masses of gold and its relief-like, flat ar- 
rangement of the figures. The altar once adorned the chapel 
of the Palla, one of the rich banker families of the early 


26 


(saais LSVa AGNV HLNOS ) ONIM NVAdOUNA NI LYNOD 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


Renaissance, in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence, 
and its theme, the young Tobias protected on his wonder 
journey by the three archangels, may have reference to the 
departure of one of the young members of the family, an 
event which was frequently the occasion for ordering such a 
painting. The Madonna painting on the left is by the con- 
servative Florentine painter, Marrorro pi Narp1, who far 
into the fifteenth century still worked in the Trecento style. 
Even so early a style as that of Giotto, the master who with 
his powerful personality reigned throughout the fourteenth 
century, is perceivable in this work, but is far better pre- 
served in the small triptych in the style of BERNARDO Dapp1 
and Tappro Gapnt, the earliest pupils of Giotto. 

The next phase in the development of Florentine painting, 
dominated by the great personality of Masaccio, at the 
beginning of the fifteenth century, is represented in our col- 
lection by the impressive painting which centers the south 
wall, a Trinity by Masoutno, the master of Masaccio and 
one of the leading artists of the transitional epoch from the 
Gothic to the Renaissance. 

In surveying the paintings on the different walls, we find 
that the gold ground and the pleasure in flat ornamental 
composition prevails all through the room. This is particu- 
larly noticeable in the paintings by the Sienese painters of 
the fifteenth century, the most conservative school in Tus- 
cany, preserving as it did the medieval character with an 
expression of tender piety and great beauty of decorative 
pattern. Several Madonnas of charming lyrical quality show 
the style of some of the best masters of this city: ANDREA DI 
Bartoto, SANO pi Pietro, Matteo pi Giovanni, and 
Benvenuto pi Giovanni, while the poetical Sasszrra is 
represented in a composition from the Passion of Christ, 
full of rhythmical swing and exquisite color combinations. 

The Umbrian school of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies, with its lyrical tendencies, may be compared with 


27 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


the contemporary Sienese school, and is represented in the 
beautifully-executed triptych by AtteGreTro Nuz1, of the 
fourteenth century, and two panels by ANTONIAzzoO RoMANO, 
of the fifteenth century. 

The sculpture shown in this room gives a splendid idea of 
the art of the two cities, Pisa and Siena, which led in the 
field of sculpture in the fourteenth century. Of the school of 
the Pisani, Nino Pisano, the creator of the most beauti- 
ful of the Gothic Madonnas produced in Italy, is represented 
with a remarkable example of this type, astatue ofexception- 
al beauty and charm, combining with French graciousness 
typical Italian solidity and dignity of form. In Nino’s man- 
ner is also the marble relief, an expressive representation of 
Christ in the tomb. Of the work of the most important 
sculptor of Siena in the fourteenth century, Trno pa Ca- 
MAINO, we find examples in the altar frontal of his Pisan 
period, and the delicately-modeled Madonna statuette of his 
late Neapolitan style, when he executed the tombs of the 
Angevine kings. The relief of the Madonna and two Angels 
by Giovanni pi AGosTINo, the sculptor who was espe- 
cially engaged for the facade of the new cathedral in Siena, 
belongs to the same period. The sculptors as well as the 
painters of Siena worked in the Gothic style well on into the 
fifteenth century, as will be seen in the Madonna statue by 
GIOVANNI TuRINI, which centers the north wall or even the 
holy water basin on the west wall near the exit by ANTONIO 
Fepericui, the strongest personality in Sienese sculpture. 

Among the decorative arts shown in this room, the most 
important objects are the pieces of majolica of the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, showing the development of this 
art from its beginning under Spanish-Moorish influence, 
and the large stained glass window representing St. John 
the Baptist, from Venice, where we find glass manufacture 
more highly developed than anywhere else in Italy. 


28 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


GaALLery 12 
Early Christian, Byzantine, and Italian 
Romanesque Art 
A. D. 300—1300 


We now approach an epoch which is less known and less 
popular, but which deserves a careful study since the founda- 
tion for all Christian art was laid at this time. The early 
Christian art of the first centuries may be characterized 
as late Roman art adapted to the new themes provided by 
the Christian religion. The sarcophagus on the south wall, 
of the fourth century, has Roman shape and ornaments, but 
the figures represent Christian personalities: the Adorante 
(later the Virgin), the Pedagogus (apostle), and to the right 
Christ as the Good Shepherd (the bearded Apollo type). In 
the small mosaic in front of the altar representing the fish 
as the symbol of Christ, and in the bronze crosses, lamps, and 
other ornaments (in the niche) we also find Roman design 
and technic, but motifs expressive of Christiansymbolism. Of 
special interest are the textiles on the east wall, found in 
Egypt in tombs of the Christian Copts, representing as they 
do Roman heathen motifs mixed with Christian subjects 
and showing for the first time in Western art the technic of 
tapestry weaving from which the art of Gothic tapestries 
developed. | 

After the fall of the Roman Empire, and during the epoch 
of the invasion of the barbaric races, the creative power in 
Italy was exhausted for almost a millenium—from the fifth 
to the twelfth century—and influences from two outside 
sources made themselves strongly felt, one from the East, 
especially from Byzantium, where the late Roman emperors 
had founded a new empire, the other from the Germanic 
North, where the power of the newly-developing races con- 
centrated in the empire of Charlemagne. In the Byzantine 
empire, at its height from the fifth to the eleventh century, 
a highly aristocratic style was created by a fusion of Oriental 


29 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


and Western ideas, a style based upon an abstract linear sys- 
tem, especially successful in flat decoration, as in mosaics 
and ivory carvings and in stone reliefs. In its early stage 
Byzantine art found its way into Italy for the most part by 
way of Ravenna, the seat of the exarchate of Constantinople, 
and in its later stages through Venice and south Italy. Two 
examples of Italian sculpture under Byzantine influence are 
found in the marble basin in the south wall, of the fifth or 
sixth century, said to have come from Ravenna, and the 
twelfth century relief of a fantastic animal, of south Italian 
provenance, both of these sculptures characterized by a 
more refined execution of ornamental details, in contrast to 
the crude workmanship in the reliefs under northern in- 
fluence. 

The Byzantine art of ivory carving, decisive in the de- 
velopment of this important art in Europe during the Middle 
Ages, is represented in the eleventh century box from Con- 
stantinople with motives of fighting animals (niche), and a 
small placque of later date,—thirteenth or fourteenth cen- 
tury,—showing how long the Byzantine style lasted in 
eastern Europe (in the Balkans and Russia until the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries). 

Even more obvious than in the field of the decorative arts 
is the influence of the Byzantine style upon the art of paint- 
ing in Italy, where this art was revived after the religious 
revolution initiated by St. Francis of Assisi. Italian painting 
began in the thirteenth century with a very slow separation 
from Byzantine ideals, which are still the fundamental ele- 
ments in the art of Cimabue and Duccio, the first great 
painters in Tuscany. The leader of the school of Siena, 
Duccio, was preceded by Gurpo pa S1ena, possibly his mas- 
ter, with whose style we become acquainted in the Madonna 
(above the sarcophagus), a work of finest color gradation, 
while Duccio’s style is well preserved in the fascinating 
Madonna by his best follower, Szcna, and in the charming 
Nativity in the style of Segna (both above the altar). How 


30 


EARLY CHRISTIAN, BYZANTINE, AND ITALIAN ROMANESQUE ART 
A.D. 300—1300 


“ 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


long the Byzantine style lasted in Venice may be seen in the 
small composition of St. John the Baptist Preaching of Christ, 
in the style of Lorenzo Veneziano, one of the originators of 
the Venetian school. 

In contrast to the Byzantine style of Romanesque sculp- 
ture from the southern part of Italy is that of North Italy, 
which shows a relation with the Romanesque art north of 
the Alps. The interlaced ribbon motif found especially in 
Lombard art, is characteristic of the early Germanic style 
and is illustrated in the three transennas of the eighth or 
ninth century forming part of the altar. The two lions and 
the lunette representing Christ with the four Evangelists, of 
the twelfth century, show the powerful but crude forms of 
the northern style. 

The new art movement in Florence begins in the art of 
sculpture with ARNoLFo pi CamBio, a contemporary of 
Giotto, and the builder of the Florentine cathedral. He may 
be said to still belong to the Romanesque age, although his 
style has the individuality characteristic of the beginning of 
Tuscan art. The marble angel placed above the door leading 
into the Italian Gothic room is an unquestioned work by 
this artist and comes from the old, unfinished facade of the 
cathedral at Florence; the Christchild on the altar is prob- 
ably a part of one of his Madonna statues in wood. The 
crucifix (high above the altar) is the only object of some- 
what later date and belongs to the Gothic epoch. 


GALLERY 13 
Hall of Northern Gothic Art 
(A. D. 1250—1f20) 


The hall itself, with its timbered ceiling and three double 
windows with pointed arches, is designed in the English 
Tudor style. While the ceiling and the angels at the end of 
the arches are modern, the end beams placed below the 
mouldings of the ceiling are of fifteenth century French 


31 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


origin and show in their varied design of grotesque animals 
holding shields, the inventive spirit of the late Gothic wood 
carvers. An important architectural feature is the small 
Gothic chapel on the south wall, transported from the 
Chateau de Lannoy at Herbéviller, Lorraine, where it was 
executed in the last decade of the fifteenth or the beginning 
of the sixteenth century. With the changing traceries of its 
arched windows, the stained glass panels, the original stone 
altar, the holy-water basin and the niche for a reliquary 
surmounted by a tablet with early Renaissance motives, it is 
a typical example of the latest phase of Gothic architecture 
in France. 

Most prominent in the decoration of the hall are the fine 
Gothic tapestries on the main wall, representing a field of 
decorative art which replaced the frescoes of the South in 
the less sunny climate of the Northern countries, where the 
increase in the number of windows left little space for wall 
paintings. Flanders, with its great wool trade, led in the art 
of tapestry weaving, producing during the fifteenth century, 
particularly in the last decades, an enormous quantity of the 
finest type of Gothic tapestries. The set of four tapestries 
representing the story of Helen of Troy belong to this type— 
a type which the best modern weavers, such as William 
Morris, have used as their models. They were executed at 
Brussels about 1480 and later adorned the castle Cany-Bar- 
ville (Normandy) in the possession of Count Felix D’Hunol- 
stein. The experiences of Helen of Troy are depicted in eight 
Scenes, not according to Homer, but after the delightful 
composition in French verse by Benoit de Sainte More 
(twelfth century). The first tapestry represents the arrival 
of Paris and Helen at the court of Priam, King of Troy, the 
second the marriage of Paris and Helen, the third the 
embassy of Ulysses and Diomedes from the Greeks to the 
Trojans, and the fourth Helen asking forgiveness from 
Menelaus, her former husband, after the war is over. 


32 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


In the art of stone sculpture, still closely connected with 
architecture, France was the leader, although in England, 
Germany and other countries of the continent, original 
works of importance were produced. Our earliest Gothic 
stone sculpture is the little, damaged figure of Christ in the 
blue lunette on the west wall, of about 1300, showing the 
beginning of swinging curves, more apparent in the draperies 
than in the figure itself. A highly important example of the 
fully-developed Gothic rhythm in sculpture is the four- 
teenth century Madonna and Child from the Ile de France in 
the center of the hall, with the slight S-curve of the figure 
and the draperies swinging in the same direction. The other 
French statues belong to the fifteenth century and show a 
more realistic treatment in their straight, firmly-standing 
figures with more individualistic features and with the 
crowded folds of the garments treated independently of the 
body. Of this movement, which started in Burgundy, 
characteristic examples are the Madonna with Donor at the 
end of the south wall, S+. Paul, at the left of the altar, 
and the small figure of a female saint placed in the niche 
of the chapel. 

In England during the fifteenth century, workshops of the 
Nottingham school produced alabaster reliefs which were 
exported to all parts of the continent, from Scandinavia to 
Spain and Italy. The relief representing the scourging of 
Christ and the single figure of an apostle in a relief-like 
style, at the left of the Gothic chapel, belong to this school. 

A few examples of the art of wood carving, in which 
Germany excelled during this epoch, are shown on the side 
walls and on the end wall above the winding staircase: a 
shrine from Thuringia, with Madonna and saints, a flat 
relief of St. Michael, a Seated Madonna from Nuremberg, and 
an expressive statue of S+. John, part of a Crucifixion group, 
in the restless but intense Bavarian style; while the two 
groups of the Pieta, both belonging to the end of the 
fifteenth century and the first decade of the sixteenth, when 


oa 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


Gothic art still prevailed in the North, show a theme 
typical of the south-German artists but employed as far 
south as northern Italy, either by Italian artists under 
Tyrolean influence or by northern artists under Italian in- 
fluence. Of Bavarian origin is also the large painting of the 
Crucifixion above the altar, attributed to Rurtanp Fruzavur, 
showing in the prevalence of vertical lines, the large color 
planes and the flat pattern, the characteristic Gothic idea 
of wall decoration. 


GALLERY 14 


Flemish, German and French Art 
(XV—XVI Centuries) 


The art of late Gothic painting of the fifteenth century and 
the beginning of the Renaissance in the first half of the 
sixteenth, in the northern countries, is represented in the 
small room adjoining the Gothic hall. The series of paint- 
ings give an adequate idea of the importance of early 
Flemish art, which started with the great art of the Van 
Eycks and lasted throughout the fifteenth century until, in- 
fluenced by the Italians, the Renaissance style was adopted 
in the twenties and thirties of the sixteenth century. While 
Jan van Eyck is not represented, a minutely-executed work 
by his pupil, Perrus Curisrus, St. Jerome in his Study, 1s 
entirely in his style, so much so that we can trace by means 
of this picture the original by Jan van Eyck, which must 
have been seen in Italy, where it influenced some of the 
great Florentine masters in similar compositions. The com- 
pact composition of The Descent from the Cross, existing in 
several replicas, of which this seems to be the best, gives an 
idea of the powerful and dramatic art of the great master 
from Tournai, Rogier Van Der WEyYDEN, the contemporary 
of Petrus Christus. 

With the charming composition of The Marriage of St. 
Catherine, reminding us of the mille flewrs tapestries, we return 


34 


HALL OF NORTHERN GOTHIC ART 
A.D. 1250—1520 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


to the Bruges school, in the period of Memling, about 1470, 
where this Master or THE Lucia Leczenp worked as his pupil. 
The greatest Bruges master of the period of transition to the 
sixteenth century, Gerarp Davin, is shown at his best in 
the charming Annunciation, a work of fine lyrical quality and 
exquisite color patterns. His contemporary and follower, 
JAN Provost, represented by The Last Judgment, although 
active until 1529, continues the types and intense color of 
the Bruges tradition of the fifteenth century, while the great 
Antwerpian master, QuENTIN Massys, who may be called 
the predecessor of Rubens, already shows an Italian in- 
fluence in his Madonna, in the cooling off of the colors in 
the interest of a greater plasticity in the figures. 

The art of the Brussels court painter, VAN Oruzy, the 
pupil of Raphael and the artist who more than any other was. 
responsible for the introduction of the Renaissance style into 
the Netherlands, is exemplified by a Crucifixion of the artist's 
more pleasant early style, when he still preserved the rich- 
mess of color for which the early Flemish masters are so 
renowned. 

Interspersed with the paintings, we encounter an addi- 
tional series of several examples of the excellent art of the 
German wood carvers of the late Gothic and early Renais- 
sance epoch, the finest among them the monumental Madonna 
by the best Augsburg artist, Grecor Eruarpt, and a 
smaller Madonna with its original polychrome surface by the 
Suabian artist, CuristraNn Maucu. 

In France during this epoch, we find the art of ivory carv- 
ing more highly developed than in any other country, as 
can be seen by the small selection of fourteenth and fif- 
teenth century single placques and diptychs with reliefs of 
sacred and profane subjects, in the small table case between 
the windows. 

With the large painting by Lucas CraNnacu THE Exper, 
above this case, and the miniature-like painting in the 
round by Hans Hoisern THE YOUNGER, we come to the 


35 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


threshold of the German Reformation, Cranach being 
the friend of Luther, while Holbein worked in Basel, the 
city of the followers of Calvin, and later in London, another 
center of protestantism. The Madonna by Cranach shows 
the fine decorative sense of this master who combined with 
naiveté a strong sense of humor (expressed in the angel and 
Christ Child), while Holbein shows himself an extra- 
ordinary master of portraiture, developed during his stay in 
England where he became the founder of the English school 
of portraiture. 

Closely connected with Holbein’s art is the art of the 
Clouets, the best Renaissance painters in France, an example 
of whose art we can show in the portrait of a young man by 
Jean Crouet, the earliest member of the family and the 
one whose works are the rarest. The enamel-like quality 
of the painting shows the close connection between the art 
of these painters and that of the enamels of Limoges, of 
which a series in the small case on the Gothic chest, 
representing scenes from the Passion, give some idea. 


GALLERY 15 
Northern Romanesque Art 
(A. D. 1000—12f0) 


The winding staircase at the end of the south hall leads 
to a lower hall which somewhat resembles a crypt below 
a Gothic church and represents the stage of art preced- 
ing that of the hall at the upper level, namely, Roman- 
esque art of the countries north of the Alps from a.p. 1000 
to 1250. Only a few objects of this important style, mostly 
from France, can so far be shown: columns, capitals, and a 
few figure pieces, all proving that at no other period was 
sculpture so closely bound by architectural laws. In the two 
types of capitals, the three of tufa on the south side, from 
the Pyrenees, the two in limestone on the north side, from 
the Loire country, we find the two systems of decoration 


36 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


characteristic of the twelfth century, the first covering the 
entire surface with ornaments (the motives here being 
griffins and leaves between intertwined scrolls), the second 
applying spotted ornaments of branches and figures on large 
empty spaces of background. But in both systems the orna- 
mentation follows closely the simple geometric form of the 
dice-shaped capitals characteristic of the Romanesque style. 

The fine Enthroned Madonna and Child belongs to the de- 
veloped type of French Romanesque art and is from the 
Ile de France, where this art attained its most refined ex- 
pression. While the conventionalized costume of parallel 
lines and the aged expression of the Christchild remind us 
of Eastern and Byzantine traditions, in the type of the 
Virgin, especially when seen in profile, we find the 
beginning of the expression of grace for which French art 
became famous in Gothic times. 

In the large crucifix, beautifully carved from wood in 
most severe forms (central France), we see the first trace 
of the restlessness of line which came into Romanesque art 
at the end of the twelth century. It is one of the earliest 
types of the suffering Christ, which replaced the triumphant 
Christ of the early Middle Ages. The Head of a Saint on the 
pillar on the west wall, from one of the Spanish cathedrals 
of the early thirteenth century, shows a faint indication of 
the softness of outline which is to develop a little later into 
the full Gothic rhythm. 

The stone font in the center of the hall, large enough for 
immersion, dates back to the time of the introduction of 
Christianity in the North, the Carlovingian epoch, and 
shows in its interchanging bands and rosettes, and its bar- 
baric representation of the four evangelists on the cornets, 
the curious mixture of Christian and heathen motifs which 
obtained during this period. The fifteenth century Gothic 
font is placed for comparison at the doorway leading into 
the court. 


37 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


GALLERY 16 
Prehistoric Art 
(Europe, Egypt, America) 


The adjoining gallery leads us back to the beginning of 
the arts in Europe in prehistoric times. In the first flat case 
a small collection of bronze placques.and implements is 
shown, beginning with a few silver inlaid fibulae of Mero- 
vingian origin and going back, in other ornamental objects, 
to the so-called ‘‘Hallstatt’’ and ‘‘La Téne’’ periods, and 
to the Bronze Age (1500 3.c.). The corresponding wall 
case contains examples of Merovingian pottery and of ~ 
the earliest Germanic ceramics of the bronze period, from a 
cemetery in Silesia, some of their outlines, even at this 
early period, showing an imitation of bronze vessels. 

In the next flat cases we find an excellent selection of 
stone implements of the Neolithic and Paleolithic epochs, 
especially those from Scandinavia, while the wall cases 
show for comparison prehistoric Greek and Egyptian pot- 
tery. The cases at the end contain prehistoric American 
pottery and implements, with an especially fine collection 
of flint arrowheads, showing the close relationship which 
exists in primitive art in the most widely separated parts of 
the world. 

After viewing the court again we return to the early 
Christian room by way of the main (not the winding) stair- 
case, through the large central hall, entering the second 
door on the right. We now pass through the eastern door 
of this room and are thus led back to the art from which 
early Christian art was derived, Roman art from 600 B.c. 
to A.D. 300. 

Gatiery 17 


Roman Art 
(600 B. C.—A. D. 300) 
The room itself has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, the type of 
vaulting most characteristic of Roman architecture, and a 


38 


SHIUNLNAD AX GNV AIX ‘LUV OIHLOD NVITIVLI 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


wall cover of Pompeiian red. That the Roman sculptors de- 
serve their fame as masters of portraiture we will at once 
perceive from the three busts of Roman emperors on the 
east wall. They represent emperors of the three first cen- 
turies of our era at Rome: Augustus, 63 B.c. to a.p. 14, 
Septimius Severus, a.p. 146 to 211, and Philippus Arabs, 
emperor a.D. 244-249, and show the development of style 
during this epoch as well as the different types of men who 
ruled the Roman world. The clear-eyed and cultured states- 
man, Augustus, is represented beardless in a more than life 
size bust of fine atmospheric surface treatment. Septimius 
Severus, of African origin, the first emperor to give all 
official positions at Rome to foreigners, thus undermining 
the purely Roman character of the Empire, is shown with a 
beard, introduced since Hadrian’s reign, the head with its 
curved nose and curly hair being treated in a more pictorial 
manner, with strong contrast of light and shadow in the 
execution of the hair. Philippus Arabs, one of the last 
emperors before Constantine, the first Christian emperor, 
is one of the brutal types of the decadence. The treatment 
of this head with its hard outlines and staring eyes, marked 
by a plastic execution of the iris and pupil, is characteristic 
of the last phase of Roman art. 

The fourth bust, on the opposite wall, shows the severer 
and more lineal style of the last era of the Republic, in a 
personality of marked features characterized by splendidly- 
simplified, clear outlines. 

The Augustinian epoch was especially noted for its de- 
velopment of a more refined, decorative style in sculpture, 
which we may observe in the portion of a marble throne, 
and the beautifully executed large sarcophagus of this or the 
following period, a type showing ornaments most frequently 
imitated by the Renaissance artists. While this sarcophagus 
gives us one type of the burial methods of the Romans, the 
small marble case (at the left of the glass case) shows the 
other type, the cinerary urn. The Roman custom of burning 


39 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


their dead was inherited from the Etruscans, as may be 
seen from the small marble sarcophagus on the other side 
of the glass case, a work of the third or fourth century B.c. 
In composition and style it shows the close relationship be- 
tween Etruscan and Greek art, and proves that in all their 
idealistic compositions the artists of Italy were dependent 
upon their great predecessors in Greece. 

The vase with a fine rhythmic design of winged death 
deities shows the earliest Etruscan style, corresponding to 
the Greek archaic style of the sixth century B.c. 

In the wall and table cases we find various objects of 
decorative arts: glass,—one of the most important products 
of Roman craftsmen,—coins, terra cotta vases, and bronze 
implements. 


GALLERY 18 
Greek Art 


(600—z00 B. C.) 


In entering the next room we must bear in mind that like 
most collections of classical sculpture, only an extremely 
limited number are of original Greek execution, most of 
them being more or less exact copies of Roman workman- 
ship. The Roman sculptors, great as they were as portrait- 
ists, but lacking in inventive genius so far as idealistic 
themes were concerned, were able to copy the Greek orig- 
inals to such a degree of perfection that the differentiation 
between Greek originals and Roman copies still remains 
among the most difficult problems of art criticism. 

The periods in which Greek art reached its greatest 
heights are the sixth century s.c. with its archaic style; 
the fifth century s.c., the age of Phidias and Polykleitos; 
and the fourth century, the time of Praxiteles. While an 
original of the Cypriote style, the head of a bearded man, 
with its conventionalized features and slanting, almond- 
shaped eyes and curious smile, gives an idea of the archaic 
sculpture of the sixth century, the art of the fifth century 


40 


EUROPEAN SECTION 


is shown in a statue of a kneeling girl, its drapery remind- 
ing us of some of the Olympian sculpture (c. 460 B.c.), 
and in a fine portrait bust, whose original must have sug- 
gested in workmanship the famous bust of Pericles, an 
Athenian work of about 450 s.c. 

The age of Praxiteles, the middle of the fourth century, is 
represented by an exceptionally beautiful torso, a replica 
of the Venus de Medici, or, according to others, the Venus 
of Cnidos, and a male torso, possibly representing Apollo. 
The draped figure of a standing woman, with its easy and 
natural pose, goes back to a remarkably fine work of the 
Hellenistic period, the late third or fourth century, possibly 
originally a statue of Fortuna, the original of which, to 
judge from the many replicas in existence, must have been 
very famous. Even without its head and limbs, the move- 
ment of the body beneath the drapery is clearly revealed, a 
characteristic of nearly all Greek sculpture. 

In the original tomb relief of the fourth century, the left 
side of a votive scene is preserved, showing Apollo sitting 
on the omphalos, holding the sacred laurel tree and phial. 

The small collection of vases shows clearly the develop- 
ment from the archaic style of the seventh century (the 
Corinthian style, with long-drawn-out animals of Oriental 
character), and the sixth century (black-figured vases, 
second shelf and wall case, and two free-standing cases 
with warrior scenes), to the height in the fifth century 
(red-figured vases and white lecythoi) and the beginning 
of the decadence in the third and fourth centuries (the vases 
with designs in yellow-brownish tones with white lights 
on black ground). Of special note are the two large vases 
at either side of the wall case, of fifth century Athenian 
workmanship, one a krater or jar for mixing wine and water, 
with a representation on one side of Helios, the god of the 
sun, driving his chariot of winged horses over the purple 
sea, and on the reverse, three youths in rhythmic poses; the 


41 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


other a stamnos, showing on one side Hermes escorting 
Hera and Aphrodite to Paris the son of Priam; on the other, 
three women,—the scenes on both vases beautifully-com- 
posed and finely adapted to the form of the vase. 

The well-preserved Corinthian helmet of the fifth cen- 
tury, and the bronze pitcher with snake handle, both cov- 
ered with a fine green patina, show that the Greek sense of 
beauty in simplified outlines extended to this material also. 


42 


LUV ACHAO 


ASIATIC SECTION 
GALLERY 19 
Egyptian Art c. 3000—r00 B.C. 


Egyptian art can be included in the Asiatic section, as it 
is Closely related to Asiatic art,—so much so that at one time 
the theory was advanced that Egyptian art was derived 
from Babylonian art. It follows logically in the arrange- 
ment of the collections between Greek art and the art of the 
Near East, for Egyptian art is not so much an art of Africa 
as it is a part of the culture of the eastern Mediterranean. 
On one side it is related to the earliest Greek art at the 
period when that art showed a connection with the Oriental 
style and Greek influence reached islands like Crete and 
Cyprus not far north of Egypt; on the other it shows a 
kinship with the art of Mesopotamia, possibly the center 
of the earliest development of art in the history of mankind 
(see examples of Babylonian writing of the third millenium 
B.c., and the fragment of a Chaldean stone jar in the table 
case to the left). 

Although we find a relation with the European art of 
Greece in the early period and of Rome in the late period, 
the character of Egyptian art is entirely different from and 
even opposed to the style of the close, if idealistic, imitation 
of nature which we observe in the classical art of Europe. 
Egyptian art is consciously conventionalized and abstract 
in the sense of all Asiatic art, preferring the flat system of 
decoration in two dimensions to the expression of the three- 
dimensional, plastic movement of European art. We find its 
highest development, therefore, in sculptured reliefs and 
relief-like, free-standing figures ; in the most diverse types of 
flat ornamentation in the decorative arts, in utensils, re- 
ligious symbols, jewelry, etc. 

The Egyptians reckoned history according tothedynasties 
of their kings. Modern scholars have grouped the most 
prominent dynasties together, and divided the history of 
Egypt into the periods of the Old Empire (3000—2500 z.c.), 


43 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


the Middle Empire (2200—1700 3.c.), and the New Em- 
pire (1600—1100 B.c.). The final epoch lasted until 525 
B.c., when Cambyses, the King of the Persians, conquered 
Egypt. In 332 n.c. Alexander the Great became ruler in 
Egypt, and was succeeded by his general, Ptolemy, who, with 
his followers, ruled Egypt until it became a Roman province 
in the year 30 B.c. 

The Museum does not as yet own any original works of 
the great art epochs of the Old or Middle Empire. Its earli- 
est work is a relief representing mourning women, of the 
time of Amenophis IV, the religious reformer of the New 
Empire, c. 1400 3.c. Nearly all the other objects belong to 
the Ptolemaic and Roman epochs. 

Practically all that we know of the life and culture of old 
Egypt has been derived from excavations of tombs. These 
discoveries teach us that art developed in close connection 
with religion, especially with the belief that the dead 
could not live in another world if their bodies were 
not well preserved and nourished. Thus they were mum- 
mified and placed in carefully protected sarcophagi of 
wood or stone, while portrait statues were often placed in 
the tombs, and portraits in plaster or on wood panels cov- 
ered the heads of the mummies, the idea being that the 
spirit should be enabled to live in a form as much like real 
life as possible. Offerings of food were brought to the tombs 
for the nourishment of the dead, and symbolic figures, 
writings, amulets of all kinds, and household utensils were 
added for their entertainment. In the large case at the end 
wall we find exhibited two covers from wooden sarcophagi, 
and a mummy whose head is covered with a gilt mask, all 
three of the Ptolemaic epoch. The large stone head on the 
right wall is also part of a sarcophagus cover of the same 
period. The three realistically-painted plaster heads, at the 
end of the same wall, dating from the Middle Empire, and 
the portrait panel from the Fayum, of the Roman epoch, 
show the naturalistic tendencies which invaded Egyptian 


44 


ASIATIC SECTION 


art at this time, the painted portrait head of a young 
woman being an especially fine achievement of realistic 
portraiture. 

The minor objects in the center case and some of the small 
wall cases give an idea of the inventive spirit of the Egyptian 
artists in the creation of ornaments of the most diverse ma- 
terials,—faience, stone, wood, terra cotta, and glass,—orna- 
ments which show an extraordinary adaptation of the dif- 
ferent forms of Egyptian flowers, plants and animals (palm- 
ette, rosette, cat, snake, scarab, etc.) to the conventional 
style of their art. 


GALLERY 20 
Near Eastern Art (Turkey and Persia) 


The art represented in this gallery is usually termed 
Muhammadan art, and comprises the period from about the 
eighth or ninth century to the eighteenth century. It orig- 
inated from three main sources: the art of the precursors of 
the Persians in the pre-Christian era (the Babylonian and 
Assyrians); that of their successors, the Sassanians; Byzan- 
tine art and the Coptic art of Egypt. Through the latter 
cultures Muhammadan art is connected with Greek and 
Roman art. In spite of these varied influences, the style of 
Muhammadan art developed an entirely original character, 
based upon the Asiatic origin of its creators as well as upon 
the forms of the Muhammadan religion. 

What the West calls form painting—its delight in pro- 
ducing the illusion of reality—is unknown in the art of 
Turkey and Persia, where flat surfaces alone form the con- 
vention, and where linear design and color are sufficient. It 
is this sense of rhythmic movement in flat decoration that 
Muhammadan art has in common with Egyptian art. But 
while the Egyptian artists practised a sculpture in relief 
style, with figural motives, the Muhammadan artists have 
neither much interest in sculpture nor in figural subjects, 
the latter being to some degree forbidden by their religion. 


45 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


The painted plaster figure of a court official, in the 
center of the right wall, is a rare specimen of thirteenth 
century Persian sculpture, showing the lack of individuality 
in type and the inclination to reduce plastic form to a two- 
dimensional representation. 

The influence of the Muhammadan religion, which 
teaches quietness of mind and fatalistic resignation, is 
obvious also in the calmness and lyrical sentiment of its 
art expression. In the most important types of Persian and 
Turkish art we find that the individual character of the 
artist as well as any kind of dramatic feeling is entirely 
suppressed. Those fields of art which in the West lend 
themselves to personal characterization, such as sculpture 
or paintings of large size, are less developed in the Near 
East. On the other hand, what in Europe are called the 
minor arts become high arts in Turkey and Persia, such as 
the arts of rug weaving, ceramics and miniature painting. 

The rug weaving of the Near East, where its development 
started and reached its highest point, goes back to the earli- 
est times, though nothing is preserved of this art before the 
fifteenth century (with two possible exceptions of the 
fourteenth century), the great epoch being the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. The differences between Turkish 
(Asia Minor and Armenia) rugs and Persian rugs can be 
easily observed even in the few examples in our collection. 
The Turkish rugs shown on the left side of the room have a 
geometric style and a harder color scheme, while the Persian 
rugs, such as the silk animal rug on the end wall and the 
Ispahan on the right side of the room, have a more refined 
color combination and are nearer to nature in their design 
of growing flowets or animals in vivid action. The silk 
animal carpet is a magnificent example of those types of 
court rugs woven in the reign of Shah Abbas the First 
(1587-1629), most of which are treasures in the collections 
of European museums, representing as they do the highest 
type of rug weaving of all epochs. Our carpet is of excep- 


46 


(VIsudd GANV ATAUAL) LUavy NYALSVA UVAN 


N 


ASIATIC SECTION 


tional weaving, having six hundred and fifty knots to the 
square inch, and is superb in the richness and purity of tone 
of its glowing colors and in their arrangement in a pattern. 
The center field illustrates animal groups, some of fabulous 
origin, fighting pairs interspersed with single animals, as 
we see them in the contemporary miniature paintings. The 
border of pheasants and lotus flowers shows Chinese in- 
fluence, which was especially strong in the sixteenth 
century under the Safavids. 

The various merits and characteristics of Persian ceramics 
can be studied in the examples shown in the small collection 
in the wall cases, containing types which range in date from 
the ninth to the eighteenth century. The earliest is the so- 
called Guebrie ware, a type of mezzo-majolica attributed to 
the tenth or eleventh century. Two of the finest among them 
are a bowl with a dove motif incised in ivory-colored glaze, 
and one with an incised drawing of a cat. The famous classic 
pottery of Rhages and Sultanabad dates in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, during the Mongol dynasty, one ex- 
ample of early light-brown lustre with a drawing of much 
vitality being possibly earlier, of the tenth century. Worthy 
of special mention are a turquoise-blue ewer from Sultana- 
bad, with a running frieze of animals modelled in relief 
around the shoulder; a copper lustre bow] from Rhages with 
a seated figure of Mongol type; and a bowl with radiating 
bands of blue, from the same city. 

Other objects in the collection of special interest are a 
large fifteenth century candlestick in bronze; two doors, one 
of the eleventh century in flat carving, the other of the 
sixteenth century in lacquer; and a fine Persian lacquer 
mirror case dating in the period of Shah Abbas, with a 
miniature painting by the court painter, Riza Abbasi. Its 
idyllic theme, showing a courtier and princess Visiting in 
a garden, strongly reminds one of Omar's much-quoted 
quatrain. 

In the same desk case are examples of Persian tooled and 


47 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


gilded book covers, with an illuminated chapter in Arabic 
from the Koran, the cover dating in the sixteenth century, 
and early examples of Persian and Syrian jewelry, the Islamic 
gold bracelet, dating in the eleventh century, being espe- 
cially noteworthy. So far the collection has but one Persian 
miniature, with a characteristic hunting scene and rocky 
landscape, a good example of the Safavid period, dating 
about 1600, somewhat in the style of Behzad, the greatest 
Persian miniature painter. 


GALLERY 21 
Indian and Indonesian Art 


Indian art is not an art of representation, but in the main 
an art of philosophical ideas expressed in concrete symbols, 
based for the most part upon “‘canonical prescription” in- 
stead of direct observation. As an art of ideas “‘it cannot,”’ 
in explanation of much which appears at first strange to 
western eyes, ‘‘be judged by standards of verisimilitude; 
it must be approached as expression. There is no such thing 
as ‘accurate drawing,’ but that drawing is best (as Leonardo 
says) which best expresses the passion that animates the 
figure. We must look for truth of feeling and movement 
rather than for scientific knowledge of perspective and 
anatomy."’ In subject, Indian art ‘“‘embraces the distinct 
traditions of Hinduism (Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jaina) 
and of Islam.”’ 

With the exception of the Buddhist and Brahmanical cave 
frescoes at Ajanta, dating from the second to the seventh 
century A.p., and their descendants in the portfolio paint- 
ings of the Rajputana School from the sixteenth to the nine- 
teenth century, and Jaina painting, Indian art consists for 
the most part of sculpture, both stone and bronze. The 
former dates, in so far as it concerns Buddhism, as early as 
the fourth century s.c., the latter mainly from the twelfth 
century a.p., although a bronze is extant dating in the 
third century a.p. 

48 


ASIATIC SECTION 


Buddhism is dominant in Indian art from the Andhra 
period (220 B.c.) through the Gupta period (650 a.p.), 
when it reaches its climax. For the rest, from the seventh 
century to the present day, with the exception of Indonesian 
art such as that of Java, Cambodia, Siam, etc., it is largely 
Brahmanical in subject. 

The earliest example of Indian art in the collection is a 
fine stone stele of the Indo-Hellenistic school, the base of a 
stupa or tomb, representing scenes from the life of Buddha, 
dating probably in the first century a.p., or the early Kus- 
ana period. The adaptation of the Greek style to Indian 
and Buddhist requirements is apparent in the composition 
as a whole and in the seated and reclining figures of the 
Buddha, with Greek conventions persisting in the standing 
poses, in the folds of the drapery, the hair, and to some ex- 
tent the expression. Greek craftsmen, it should be remarked, 
were imported to Gandhara (northwest India) in the first 
and second centuries after Christ, in the interest of Buddh- 
ism, to erect shrines and images to Gautama. 

There is also in the collection an example of the Mathura 
school of sculpture of the Gupta period, a head of a wor- 
shipper or saint in red sandstone, dating probably in the 
fifth century. In the Gupta period India was unified under 
the rulers of that dynasty and her art became Indian in the 
pure sense without external influences; nor did Buddhist art 
again reach the high standard it attained in this dynasty, 
except in the colonies. Our example, in its simple contours 
and serene expression, is illustrative of Buddhist art when it 
reached its climax in India proper. 

The remaining sculpture in the collection illustrates the 
Colonial schools of Cambodia and Siam, the outstanding 
example being a head of Buddha in red sandstone from 
Khmer, Cambodia. The central idea of the ‘‘One who has 
attained perfect wisdom’”’ is conveyed by suggestion through 
the broad, simple planes of the modelling, the dignity of the 
head as a whole, the elusive smile and the contemplative 


49 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


expression indicated by the closed eyelids. This example 
illustrates the great school of Khmer art as it existed in the 
twelfth century, when it also reached its apex. The other 
example of Khmer art represents the bodhisattva Siddhartha 
(crowned with a diadem) who became Buddha, sheltered by 
a serpent king at a time when legend records that he re- 
ceived his first bath as a child at the hands of these fabulous 
rulers. This example dates about the thirteenth or early 
fourteenth century. The expressive head of the Buddha in 
light sandstone, dating possibly in the twelfth century, and 
the bronze head of Gautama, of the fourteenth century, are 
from Siam. 

The collection also includes a group of Indian paintings of 
the Rajput and Kangra schools, from the sixteenth to the 
eighteenth century, and two leaves from the Jaina sacred 
manuscript of the fifteenth century, the latter illustrating 
scenes from the life of Mahavira, the divinity of the Jaina, 
who in many respects corresponds to the Buddha. The 
paintings of the Rajput school, descendants of the Ajanta 
frescoes, though small in size, exhibit a breadth of scale 
characteristic of mural painting. They have for the most 
part little modelling and are done in tempera technique on 
paper. The colors are strong and intense if somewhat 
sombre in the earlier examples. 

The subjects of Rajput painting are in the main drawn 
from epic and popular poetry and from Brahmanical 
theology. One of the most recurrent themes is the cult of 
Radha and Krishna from the Ramayana, where “‘human love 
in all its phases is interpreted as an image of the history of 
the soul of man (typified in Radha and the other milkmaids 
of an Indian Arcadia) pursued by the divine lover Krishna, 
herdsman and avatar of Vishnu.”’ Our painting of Krishna 
with the Gopis and Radha in the forest of Brindabran 
illustrates very beautifully an incident in this theme as 
treated by the Kangra school of the eighteenth century. The 
style of this valley school is somewhat more lyrical though 


50 


ALSVNAG NVOA OL GOIMMAd LSAITUVA ‘LUV ASANIHO 


ASIATIC SECTION 


less bold than the Rajput hill school. The hill school is 
illustrated by two ‘‘musical modes’’ of a Ragmala series, a 
‘‘musical mode’’ being a portrayal in painting of a situation 
appropriate to the various moods expressed by a “‘mode,’’ a 
musical term equivalent to our note or series of notes in a 
scale. A relation between music and painting obtains in 
India as it does in no other country. The subject of one of the 
modes represents a Ragini—a heroine—with a vina, a 
stringed instrument, playing to peacocks in the trees, during 
a shower. The style is highly conventionalized, abstract, 
strong and emotional. A tender phase of Indian painting is 
represented by a lovely drawing of the Kangra school dating 
in the eighteenth century, from the popular Nala-Damayanti 
theme, representing lovers on a terrace of a palace. Two 
examples of the Indo-Persian or Mughal school complete the 
small group of Indian paintings. 

A fragment of a beautifully-colored rug of the seventeenth 
century shows the difference between these carpets of 
Northern India and the Persian ones from which they were 
derived: the characteristic dark wine-red ground, the sym- 
metrical arrangement of flowers in framework and the extra- 
ordinarily fine weaving which gives it such a velvet-like 
surface. 

Garden Court 

We now pass through the garden court, which is designed 
in the Italian baroque style of the seventeenth century, with 
a large fountain in the center. The most important decora- 
tions on the walls are two Flemish tapestries of the middle 
of the sixteenth century™. They represent the best type of 
northern Renaissance tapestries, and were designed under 
Italian influence by Pieter Coeck van Alst (1502-1550), a 
pupil of Bernard van Orley (see gallery 14), the original 
sketch for one of them being in the Albertina collection at 
Vienna. They were woven in Brussels, possibly in the best’ 
atelier of the period, that of Willem de Pannemaker, and 
show different scenes from the life of St. Paul. 


51 


*& Since the above was written, these tapestries have been removed to the central hall 
adjoining the court. 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


Turning to the left, past the door of the auditorium, we 
continue the circuit by entering the series of rooms devoted 
to Far Eastern Art. 


GALLERIES 22 and 23 
Japanese Art 


Since the Museum is not yet in possession of Japanese 
works of art worthy of exhibiting, a loan exhibition is 
shown in these galleries for the time being. Different types 
of paintings, bronzes, and ceramics, give an idea of the de- 
velopment of Japanese art from the Fujiwara period (a.p. 
900-1180) to the Tokugawa period (a.p. 1603-1867). 


GALLERY 24 
Chinese Art 
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), to Modern Times 


The objects placed on exhibition in this gallery, also, 
—porcelains of various types, chiefly of the K’ang Hsi and 
Ch’ien Lung periods, antique jades, and a rare bronze sac- 
rificial vessel of the early Chou dynasty, tenth or eleventh 
century B. C.—are loans, temporarily filling the gaps in 
the Museum’s collection. 


GALLERY 25 
Chinese Art 
Earliest Periods to Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368) 


The great early periods of Chinese history, the Han 
dynasty (206 B. c.-221 a. p.), the Wei dynasty (a. p. 
386-550), the T’ang dynasty (618-906), and the Sung dy- 
nasty (960-1280), are represented in this gallery by a small 
number of important pieces belonging to the permanent 
‘collection of the Museum. 

The most prominent of these objects are all related to 
Buddhism, the great religion of the Far East that had its 


52 


ASIATIC SECTION 


origin in India and spread eastward into China at the be- 
ginning of the Christian era. The arts of the painter, the 
sculptor, the potter and the bronze-founder had already 
attained a high development in China, so that it was not 
until the fifth century that the new religion made itself 
seriously felt in the arts, and then its contribution was 
chiefly one of new subject matter. The art most affected was 
sculpture, and so earnest were the Buddhists in embodying 
their teachings in images, that from the time of its first 
serious influence in the cave temples of Yun Kang in 
northern Shansi, by far the largest part of sculpture in 
China is Buddhist. From the caves in the north, where 
temples and images of monumental stature were hewn from 
the living rock of the cliffs by the river side, Buddhist stone 
sculpture spread and developed in other parts of China. 
Independent images of stone, wood, bronze, clay, pottery 
and lacquer were fashioned for temples and shrines, and 
this type of sculpture was continued after the cutting of 
the rock temples had ceased. The most important activ- 
ity in stone sculpture was from the fifth to the ninth 
century. From the middle of this period when, on the whole, 
the best work was produced in stone, is the full-length 
Buddhistic figure in grey limestone, dated a. p. 581, of 
Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy or Compassion. It is 
a dedicatory statue to the divinity, the gift of a noble 
family in memory of their departed, and probably formed 
one of a group of Buddhistic deities in a rock cave temple. 
(As the Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin remains in the world 
as the saviour of mankind. Her attributes, as in our statue, 
are the Amrita vase containing the miraculous potion of the 
nectar of life, and the willow branch. She may also carry 
the lotus flower. When her mission of salvation is com- 
pleted, she will be reborn as a Buddha.) Stylistically, the 
figure belongs to the Wei dynasty. The broad planes of the 
face with its benign, contemplative expression, the smile 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


suggesting attainment of bliss and peace, the quiet dignity 
and grace of the figure, are characteristic of this distin- 
guished period of Buddhistic sculpture. 

Of a later and more urbane period but in the same 
Buddhist tradition is the large and majestic head of a 
Bodhisattva in wood, which stands in the middle of the 
room. The original coating of gesso and gilt has almost 
entirely disappeared, but the fine modelling of features has 
not suffered during the long lapse of time since the tenth 
century, when, in all probability, the figure of which this 
head was a part was carved and installed in some now van- 
ished temple. Old figures were often restored and retouched 
by later generations, and the present headdress may be re- 
garded as such a restoration. 

Calligraphy has always been considered by the Chinese 
to be the supreme art, and next to writing, painting. Their 
paintings were of two types: frescoes upon wall surfaces of 
palaces and cave temples, and paintings upon paper and 
silk in long horizontal scrolls (makemono), and vertical 
hanging form (kakemono). Chinese, so-called India ink, was 
the most common pigment, augmented by vegetable and 
mineral colors prepared with glue and used as watercolors. 

The golden age of Chinese painting as we know it, was 
the T’ang and Sung dynasties. In these periods the Chinese 
masters achieved their greatest distinction and are compar- 
able with the greatest masters of Europe. As in sculpture, 
so in painting, Buddhism provided an abundance of material 
for the hand of the artist, and many of the greatest painters 
of the golden age are reported to have left religious, as 
well as secular masterpieces, while during such periods of 
political unrest as the Southern Sung dynasty, men’s minds 
were turned inward and practically all painting was in- 
fluenced by the contemplative attitude of the Ch’an, or 
Zen, school. The Chinese divide paintings into four classes, 
of which the chief is landscape. Buddhist paintings are 
usually regarded as a sub-class in the group designated as 


54 


SHIUNLNAD IAX GNV AX ‘LUV HONAW ANV NYWUED SHSINATA 


ASIATIC SECTION 


‘“‘Men and Objects.’’ The Museum possesses no Chinese 
paintings of a secular character, but the fresco of the 
Goddess Kuan Yin is a worthy example of Buddhist paint- 
ing. Though the Tung Yen temple in the province of Shansi, 
from which this painting came, was erected in the T'ang 
dynasty, the picture itself probably dates from the closing 
years of the Sung. The goddess stands upon lotus flowers 
resting in the clouds. In her left hand she carries the lotus, 
the emblem of purity. She is crowned and jeweled as a 
Bodhisattva, who in this particular incarnation is always 
represented as of royal lineage. The vitality of drawing, 
rhythmical organization of line, and beauty of fresh, har- 
monious color which characterise the best painting of this 
type, are well exhibited in this picture. 

The other Buddhist picture, on the wall opposite the 
fresco, is a Korean temple painting done in the Korai per- 
iod (928-1392 a.p.) It represents the Buddha seated in con- 
templation upon a lotus throne, among a hierarchy of royal 
personages, saints, deities, and bodhisattvas—the latter 
standing in the last row under the clouds—numbering in all 
thirty figures. In his hand the Buddha holds the jewel of 
perfection, and the halo of wisdom surrounds his head, the 
exterior halo symbolizing the all-pervading wisdom in which 
he is immersed. The composition, the certainty and fine- 
ness of line, the distinguished color scheme, and the serene 
dignity of the composition as a whole, all combine to 
express high standards of art and the philosophic aims 
of the Buddhistic religion. 

Non-Buddhistic, and associated with the ancient Chinese 
rites connected with ancestor worship and the burial of 
the dead, are those other figures in this room which fall 
within both the sculptor’s and the potter’s realms. Espec- 
ially noteworthy is the prancing steed hanging to the right 
of the fresco, a polychrome clay bas-relief from a tomb in 
the province of Honan. Though probably of the third 
century A. D., the style of the horse recalls vividly the 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


sculptured bas-reliefs of the Wu Liang T’zu, most famous 
of the pictorial stones of the Han dynasty. The horse, 
which was cut in the gray tiles and then pigmented, was 
probably part of a frieze illustrating a martial exploit or 
an imperial scene. In spirited outline and in movement it 
is characteristic of the best work of its period. Closely akin 
to this horse in intention and use, if not in form, are the 
various small funerary figures done in the round in clay 
and either pigmented or glazed, that occupy places in the 
cases. For realism of form and movement no sculpture in 
China ever surpassed in modelling the best of the tomb 
figures of the T’ang dynasty. 

Pottery, which is best identified as ‘‘clay ware of more or 
less porous body, opaque and varying from soft friability to 
the hardness of porcelain,’’ was made in China in the pre- 
historic era. As the art developed, the pottery was glazed, 
making it impervious to water;'this can be traced to the 
second century, in the Han dynasty. The aesthetic quality 
of Chinese pottery from earliest times until its decline, 
consists in its form, its incised and modelled decoration and 
its glaze. Most of the vessels of the Han dynasty have a 
simple grandeur of form, and are made in reddish clay or in 
stoneware, and may be covered with a thin glaze, varying 
from light to dark green, and sometimes black. In the suc- 
ceeding dynasties and particularly in the T’ang and Sung 
periods, new glazes of various shades including white, blue, 
gteen, celadon, red, and yellow were invented and attained 
a beauty and fineness which have remained unexcelled. In 
this period, motifs which had been used since the earliest 
times, modelled or moulded in low relief or incised in the 
clay, were continued. An innovation of the period which 
came into vogue was the use of the fired polychrome glaze, 
by which T'ang pottery is principally known. 

The examples in the two wall cases illustrate by several 
types the development of pottery from the Han dynasty 
through the T’ang and Sung dynasties: a very interesting 


56 


ASIATIC SECTION 


series of grave potteries and incense burners called marbled 
pottery, fashioned of two and three kinds of colored clays, 
some of them glazed; a semi-porcelain bowl with incised 
lotus; and two shallow dishes of semi-eggshell texture 
with scroll patterns. 


GALLERY 26 
Primitive American, African, and Pacific Art 


This room connects the Asiatic section with the American 
wing. Its contents show on one side the beginning of Ameri- 
can culture and on the other its link with the culture of the 
Pacific and the nations bordering it on the opposite side of the 
ocean, with which it is possible that it had some artistic con- 
nection. Primitive American art is represented by examples 
of (1) Mexican antiquities, (2) Peruvian antiquities, (3) the 
art of the American Indians, especially those of the north- 
western and the southwestern parts of North America. The art 
objects of the American Indians are of comparatively recent 
date (eighteenth and early nineteenth century) but show in 
their conventionalized style very old traditions and are 
remarkably expressive in the motifs of floral and animal 
designs as well as in their religious symbolism. In the case 
below the window are excellent types of the pottery of the 
Hopi (Pueblo) Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, and in 
the second case to the left carvings in wood and slate of the 
Haida and Wakash Indians (Northwest coast of the United 
States and Canada). This collection is supplemented by a 
gallery of aboriginal American art on the ground floor 
adjoining the Prehistoric Gallery. 

The Mexican and Peruvian antiquities (cases opposite en- 
trance and on wall opposite window) represent the in- 
digenous art of America, the origin of which very likely 
goes as far back as several centuries before Christ and lasts 
until the fifteenth century. In certain fields, such as architec- 
ture, ceramics, and textiles, the art of the early Peruvians 


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and Mayas can take its place beside that of highly-developed 
cultures of Asia and Europe. The theory that we find in 
these ancient American peoples only an arrested develop- 
ment of art, and that this development was stopped by the 
conquest of the Spaniards, cannot be substantiated. It seems 
altogether probable that this ancient art had a long and 
quiet development for centuries, less interrupted and less 
disturbed by outside influences than, for instance, any of the 
art centers of Europe, and that when the Spaniards came, its 
height had long since been passed. As has been true in the 
development of other cultures, we find that the conquerors 
coming from outside did not arrive until the older culture had 
begun to weaken, thus inciting the invaders to the idea of con- 
quest. The destroyers of the artistic culture of ancient America 
were not the European conquerors of Mexico, Central Amer- 
ica and Peru in the second and third decades of the sixteenth 
century, but military nations near them who had found out 
long before the beginning decadence of their artistic neigh- 
bors. Events in Mexico and Peru seem to have been similar in 
this respect. In both countries new neighbors arose in the 
highlands in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: in 
Mexico the Aztecs, in Peru the Incas, both nations of 
despotic tendencies. They conquered the valleys along the 
coast where the artistic races lived: in Central America the 
Zapotecs and Maya Indians; in Peru the Chimus and the in- 
habitants of the coast region as far down as Nazca. Like all 
more politically-inclined nations, neither the Aztecs nor the 
Incas were artistically highly productive. The great achieve- 
ments in the field of art lay before their time. 

Those who are convinced that there are certain analogous 
developments all over the earth in a given period of human 
history, developments based upon rhythmic movements, 
possibly in connection with the earth’s revolutions, have 
always been of the opinion that the height of Mayan archi- 
tecture is contemporaneous with the art of India and the 
Near East from the ninth to the thirteenth century and with 


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—— 


ASIATIC SECTION 


the Romanesque period in Europe: that there is the same 
pleasure in abstract, geometric ornaments formed from com- 
binations of human, animal and vegetable motives; the same 
inclination toward flat relief bound by two parallel planes; 
the same content of interchanging religious and demonic 
motives; the same broadness and heaviness of architectural 
forms. The dating of the Mayan monuments, which is now 
possible through the reading of the hieroglyphs, has proved 
the correctness of this view and the error of those who found 
similarity to early Egyptian architecture and sculpture—a 
similarity which exists more in the size than in the style of 
the monuments. 

No dating is known as yet for the Peruvian objects, but 
we know now that their style, in so far as it is abstract and 
conventionalized and represents demonic types, has been in- 
fluenced by, or is at any rate related to, the style of the 
ancient Central Americans. Another factor seems to point 
to the last centuries of the first millenium a.p. for the 
textiles of the more highly developed technique. It has often 
been said that the tapestry and kelim technique of the early 
Peruvians is curiously similar to the technique of the Coptic 
weavings found in late Egyptian tombs from about the 
period of the fourth to the ninth century a. p. It seems 
indeed improbable that such a difficult technique (see 
gallery 12) should have been discovered independently even 
in so widely-separated parts of the world. Trade travels 
enormous distances. We know that certain motives in 
Chinese art of the Han and T’ang periods were derived from 
the late Greek art, and that the Byzantine weavers learned 
silk fabrication from China, examples of which are also 
found in Coptic tombs. We find in Japan Gin Nara, in the 
ninth century) fragments of Sassanian silks and tapestry 
“weaving whose technique must have traveled there from 
Egypt or Byzantium, where weavings in the Coptic style 
were also executed. For the remaining part of the journey we 
can refer to the plausible theory of the connection of the art 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


of the border races of the Pacific, which explains also the 
similarity of certain geometric ornaments and convention- 
alized animal motives found on some of the bronze vessels of 
eatly medieval Chinese art to those on Mexican monuments. 
Altogether we may say that the ancient Peruvian art of the 
most highly developed style, as well as that of ancient 
Mexico, belongs to the early Middle Ages. How far the pre- 
historic art of these countries (see gallery 16) goes back 
(possibly a few centuries before Christ) is of less importance 
to us, for its artistic value is not so great. 

The most important fields in the early Peruvian culture are 
those of ceramics and textiles. Of the ceramics, types are 
exhibited from the most creative parts of the country—Valle 
de Chicama in the north and Nazca in the south—and from 
less important centers like Pachacamac and Chancay. The 
northern part, representing the Chimu culture, created 
pottery of splendid plastic effects, but with less-pronounced 
color schemes. Usually we find in the early types only parts 
of a creamy white color applied to the warm terra cotta of 
the clay from which the pottery is modelled. In Nazca the 
pottery seldom has relief modelling but has always simple 
Shapes of pure and beautiful outlines and of a rich surface 
color. Among the former are two of the famous portrait 
jats, which may be said to represent the highest type of 
Peruvian pottery. With their extraordinary characteriza- 
tion, they most likely represent individual portraits of the 
deceased in whose tombs they were found. A few other jars 
of the same technique and with stirrup handles show 
curiously-well-observed sitting figures: two of them sleeping 
old men; one a woman lost in thought, smiling peacefully; 
while other jars are in the shape of realistically-rendered 
animals and birds, such as a parrot, a frog, and a monkey 
listening to the sound of a bottle which he holds to his ear. 

Still better represented is the black ware of the late Chimu 
culture, with flat reliefs of geometric ornaments or scenes of 
human figures or landscapes. There are several examples of 


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ASIATIC SECTION 


the characteristic twin whistling jars which produce a 
whistling sound by blowing into the small ear hole, the 
same effect being obtained by pouring water down the 
spout. Other jars are in the shape of ducks and monkeys, 
and one of a well-represented seal. In other instances human 
figures are adapted to the shape of the vessels, the head being 
used for the forming of the spout, while the short arms rest 
upon the enormous belly of the jar. 

Of great charm are the clay vessels from Nazca, with their 
rich color scheme—beautiful shades of red, brown and 
orange—and their broadly conceived, conventionalized de- 
sign. The forms, all modeled by hand, are exceptionally 
even and of beautiful outline, while the colors are usually 
applied upon a creamy white or reddish background and, it 
would seem, covered after the firing with a thin varnish 
which in the well-preserved examples gives a dull shine to 
the surface. In some instances the design is still quite nat- 
uralistic, as in the fine saucer with a representation of a 
bird, very likely a condor, catching a fish. Others, of richer 
pattern, have strongly-conventionalized types of demonic 
figures derived from birds or wildcats. Whatever may be 
their interpretation, it is quite certain that none of the ab- 
stract designs applied to these funerary vessels are meaning- 
less, but express either prayers in favor of the deceased, in 
allegorical form, or charms to ward off the evil influence of 
the demons. 

The art of the early Mexicans is more difficult to represent 
in a museum, as its most important creations are in architec- 
ture. Of the three most characteristic cultures of ancient 
Mexico—that of the Mayas, the Zapoteks, and the Aztecs— 
a few examples representing the art of the Aztecs are shown: 
a stone god, a silver mask, a few gold ornaments, and four of 
those stone masks which show their extraordinary skill in 
the treatment of hard surfaces by means of stone implements; 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


for although the ancient Mexicans understood the use of 
gold, silver and copper, there is nothing to show that they 
were familiar with iron implements. 

Of special importance is the series of funerary urns of 
Zapotecan origin. This culture, whose most important ruins 
ate those at Monte Alban and Mitla, resembles that of the 
Mayan civilization of Yucatan more closely than that of 
the Aztecs—a resemblance which is also found in the re- 
ligion and in the hieroglyphic system which, however, has 
not yet been deciphered. This country was conquered by the 
Aztecs in the second half of the fifteenth century, and after 
the Spanish conquest Cortez established his residence in the 
valley of Oaxaca. Among the most characteristic produc- 
tions of the Zapotecan area are the funerary urns, some in 
gray, others in brown clay. They represent sitting figures of a 
god wearing an immense ornate mask and head-dress. The 
receptacle behind probably carried food or drink for the 
deceased. The illustrious Zapotecan dead were buried in 
gtaves composed of sculptured stone slabs in the center of a 
mound of earth. Funerary urns, usually in groups of five, 
were placed in rows near the entrance of the sepulchre. They 
resemble the large sculptures with which some of the walls 
of the temples and palaces of ancient Mexico are covered, 
and in modeling as well as in their characterization are not 
less forceful than those found on the architectural monu- 
ments. 

The first case to the left contains a few examples of the 
primitive art of Africa: wood and ivory carvings and 
bronzes, the mask and the ivory case coming from south- 
east Africa, the bronzes rare objects from the city of Benin 
in British Nigeria, the capital of a negro kingdom of con- 
siderable importance before its discovery by the Portuguese 
in the fifteenth century. They were probably executed in the 
seventeenth century and represent the head of a chief and 
small figures of warriors. 


62 


LUnNOS NAGUVS JO MAIA 


AMERICAN SECTION 
GALLERY 27 


Colonial Kitchen 


The step that we must now take, from primitive American 
att as represented in Mexican and Peruvian antiquities and 
in the art of the American Indians, to that of seventeenth 
and eighteenth century Colonial art, is a difficult one, as we 
do not have here the logical sequence which has obtained 
elsewhere throughout the building. It will be necessary to 
recall to mind, rather, the rooms of baroque art in the 
European section of the building and the two rooms of 
English and French art of the eighteenth century, for it is 
with the European art of these periods—particularly that 
of Holland and England—that American Colonial art has 
its closest affiliations. It must indeed be considered as part 
of the general art movement of the corresponding periods 
in these countries, subject of course to the modifications 
which the differences in environment and living conditions 
imposed upon it. 

The early American department of the Museum is in the 
first stages of its development. It will be found, therefore, 
that many of the objects in the Colonial rooms are on loan. 

The first room which we enter, a room only temporarily 
installed, will give some idea of a seventeenth century 
Colonial kitchen. The houses of this period, which falls 
roughly between the years 1630 and 1725, were built in the 
tradition of middle-class Elizabethan England, with steep 
gables, high pitched roofs, and overhanging upper stories. 
The interiors were simple and crude, the primitive con- 
ditions imposed upon the early settlers and the simple taste 
of the Puritans rendering utility rather than luxury of first 
importance. The floor plan of one or two rooms centered 
about the great chimney, whose enormous fireplace dom- 
inated one wall of each room. The wood sheathing or panel- 
ing, joined by simple mouldings, gives some degree of en- 
richment to these kitchens, which in most instances served 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


as living rooms and even sleeping rooms as well. The fur- 
niture, of which the Museum is able to show only a few 
types, consisted for the most part of chests, cupboards, desk- 
boxes, settles, chairs, stools and tables, of rectangular con- 
struction and comparatively large in scale, considering the 
small size of most of the rooms of the period. Some attempt 
at color and comfort was made by the use of bright-colored 
fabrics: Indian printed and painted calico (see two examples 
on walls); gay chintzes and Turkey-work, even velvets, 
damasks and plushes, for hangings and for cushions and 
coverings for chairs, tables and cupboards. 


GALLERY 28 
Mid Eighteenth Century Dining-Room 


The room adjacent to the kitchen, a paneled dining-room 
of mid eighteenth century style, shows the marked change 
which came into Colonial architecture after the first quarter 
of the eighteenth century. The first struggle for existence 
was over, and with the growing wealth and increasing ease 
of communication with England, the influences of the late 
Renaissance and baroque epochs began to make themselves 
felt in America, and the early simplicity gives way to stile 
and rail paneling, bolection mouldings, ornamental cornices, 
a free use of carving in mantlepieces, and a general greater 
sophistication of treatment. The fireplace has become smaller 
and as in this reproduction was often framed by an elab- 
orately-carved composition moulding and frieze. The dentic- 
ulated cornice running about the top of the room is one of 
the many forms typical of the period. 

The furniture, too, has undergone a complete change, the 
rectangular construction of the earlier period having given 
way to the curved lines and carving of the rococo style of 
this century, which had developed in Europe following the 
Baroque Age and to which we have already been introduced 
in the eighteenth century French and English rooms in the 
European section. 


64 


AMERICAN SECTION 


The furniture in a room of this type was usually of ma- 
hogany, a wood which made its first appearance in America 
about 1720,—earlier perhaps than in any other country,— 
and increased in popularity during the remainder of the 
century, being in particular favor with the great English 
cabinet makers, Chippendale, Sheraton, and Hepplewhite, 
whose styles dominated the furniture made during the latter 
half of the century, both in England and America. 

The silver exhibited in this room is of late seventeenth 
and eighteenth century origin, and shows the degree of per- 
fection attained by the Colonial silversmiths. In general 
the shapes are simple and the workmanship of superior 
quality. The Winslow sweetmeat box and the Paul Revere 
pieces are notable examples of a slightly more elaborate 
type. 

Here will be found a portrait of John Adams, a merchant 
of Boston, painted in 1750 by Joseph Badger, a painter born 
in Charleston who after a humble beginning as house 
painter and glazier, enjoyed a considerable local reputation 
as a portrait painter in and about Boston between 1725 and 
1775. The other paintings, which are loans to the Museum, 
are of the same period. 

Another American painter of about the same period is 
John Woolaston, who is admirably represented in a pair of 
portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen, of Clairmont, 
Virginia. Woolaston was an English painter of some note, 
who came out to the colonies to take advantage of the 
lucrative portrait practice that sprang up as the colonists 
became affluent. He worked jrom about 1750 to 1767, 
mostly in Philadelphia and Virginia. 

Copley, who in pre-Revolutionary times was closely 
identified with New England, painting portraits of many 
prominent people about Boston, is represented by a portrait 
of a lady, signed and dated 1779. About the time of the 
Boston Tea Party, Copley went to Rome, and from there to 
London, where he remained until his death in 1815. This 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


portrait, painted soon after he settled in England, is in the 
grand manner that was then current in English portraiture, 
and in its greater freedom of handling over his Colonial 
portraits shows the influence which he had encountered in 
Rome and England. 


GALLERY 29 
Whitby Hall 


The Museum has been fortunate enough to secure for its 
early American section the original interior of Whitby Hall, 
a famous colonial mansion built in Philadelphia in 1754 by 
Colonel James Coultas, a merchant and ship, farm and mill 
owner of Philadelphia, whither he had come from Whitby 
in Yorkshire, England, giving the name of his ancestral 
home to his new one in the Colonies. The windows and 
shutters are the only remaining parts of the original fagade, 
which was built of stone enriched with brick pilasters and 
arches, but the interior woodwork of the two ground floor 
rooms and the handsome hallway and staircase, is just as it 
was when the hall was built, in 1754. 

The arrangement of the house, a central hallway with 
rooms opening off it on either side, with evenly-spaced 
windows, is the typical one of the period. Of particular 
beauty and architectural interest is the staircase, over four 
feet wide, which springs from a newel of characteristic 
spiral form, enclosing a fluted pilaster whose summit is 
three and one-half feet from the floor. This handsome spiral 
starting of the balustrade, consisting of three convolutions, 
with the unusual diameter of twenty inches, gives to the 
stair of Whitby Hall an outstanding distinction, making it 
rank with the finest types of the century. The scheme is 
completed by substantial balusters crowned by a mahogany 
hand-rail worked into ramps at the top and bottom of each 
flight. On the stair landing is a fine round-headed window. 
In the original house there was a stair tower,and high upin 
this a square window that illuminated the attic hall, just 


66 


TIVH AGLIHM AO WOOU ONIMVAUG 


a . 
a & . 


AMERICAN SECTION 


below a bulls-eye opening, the case of which once formed 
the frame of a port-hole of one of Colonel Coultas’s favorite 
ships. 

In the drawing-room, at the right, interest centers in the 
imposing fireplace, faced with grey and white Scottish 
marble, with fine panel work above it. Upon each side is a 
semicircular cupboard with gracefully-outlined shelves, the 
tops beautifully-wrought of plaster into hemispherical shape 
and decorated in adaptations of the shell motif. 

The room on the other side of the hall, of the same size as 
the drawing room, has a simpler fireplace, framed with 
Dutch tiles, a type of faience which came into use in 
America toward the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth 
century and continued in popularity throughout this period. 
They were often decorated with Scriptural scenes and texts 
and served as illustration for many a Bible lesson taught 
about the hearth. 

In this room are a number of pieces of maple and other 
soft-wood furniture of Queen Anne and transitional types. 

The bedrooms on the second floor, reproductions of rooms 
of the period, are furnished in eighteenth century style, the 
one on the right with furniture of the second half of the 
century, that on the left with the earlier types of the first 
half. 


GALLERY 30 
Room of the Early Republic 


Wereturn to the lower floor and proceeding along the facade 
of the house, enter through an original doorway from anearly 
nineteenth century house, a corner octagonal room simulat- 
ing a room of the early days of the Republic—the end of the 
eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. The 
years of war had interrupted both the influx of new ideas 
from abroad and the growth of wealth. When the country, 
now an independent nation, began to think of building 
again, the taste of Europe had changed and the changed 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


influence was felt in the new republic. It consisted mainly of 
an increased attenuation and refinement in line, proportion 
and detail, introduced into England by the young Scotch 
architect, Robert Adam, who had brought back from his 
Italian visit a rejuvenation of the late Roman motifs which 
had come to light in the recent excavations at Pompeii and 
Herculaneum. The effect of these discoveries had given 
impetus to a new classical revival felt all through Europe 
and influencing all the arts: painting, sculpture, architec- 
ture, furniture, ceramics and textiles. In architecture the 
effect was first apparent in a greater self-consciousness of de- 
sign, a more studied disposition of the space relation of rooms 
one to another and in their variety of shape—circular, octag- 
onal (like our room), and oval, as well as rectangular. Anew 
use of classic motifs—swags and paterae, ribbons and flow- 
ers, leaf mouldings and the Greek key—appeared, much of the 
new decoration being made of a hard composition attached 
to the wood, permitting an elaborate repetition of designs, 
well illustrated in the ceiling, cornice and frieze of our room. 

The new treatment extended also to furniture, the cabriole 
leg giving way completely to the straight or reversed-curve 
type, and the proportion and arrangement of parts conform- 
ing to the classic ideals, illustrated in the Duncan Phyfe and 
early Empire pieces found in this room. 

The paintings follow in general style the English portraits 
of the same period. All of these artists, BENJAMIN WEsT, 
Joun SINGLETON CoPLey, GILBERT Stuart and Tuomas SuLLy, 
though born in America, received their art training in 
London, where much of their work was done. Benjamin 
West, though born in Pennsylvania, was indeed so closely 
affiliated with the English school that he became president 
of the Royal Academy upon the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds 
and received the order of Knighthood from King George III. 
In this gallery will be found two characteristic examples of 
West’s historical subjects, Queen Philippa Interceding for the 
Burghers of Calais and Belisarius and the Boy. 


68 


AMERICAN SECTION 


There are three examples of Gilbert Stuart, who also went 
to England where, in spite of the competition which he had 
with Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Hoppner, and 
other English portraitists, attained an enviable position as a 
fashionable portrait painter. The large painting, The Todd 
Family, the earliest of the three, was probably painted 
between 1780 and 1790, during the first flush of the artist’s 
success. He returned to America in 1793 and for the next 
thirty-five years was America’s foremost painter. The two 
men’s portraits are of this later American period. 

Another painter represented in this room is Thomas 
Sully who, though serving a brief apprenticeship in 
London, soon returned to Philadelphia where he led a 
tranquil life and enjoyed the reputation of being one of 
America’s leading portrait painters. The pair of portraits of 
Dr. and Mrs. Edward Hudson hanging in this room show to 
excellent advantage the quality of his painting. 

Here, too, is to be found a fine example of Chester 
Harding (1792-1866), who arose from a sign painter to a 
career as a fashionable portrait painter, living at various 
times in St. Louis, Philadelphia and Boston. The sitter, 
Dr. Samuel A. Bemis, practiced dentistry in Boston and 
contributed much to the knowledge of this profession. 
This portrait by Harding dates from about 1830. 

In the two wall cases will be found a selected portion of 
the Mrs. Arthur W. Soper collection of historical Stafford- 
shire china, made in Staffordshire, England, for the Ameri- 
can trade. Some of the most famous pieces of this series are 
shown in this collection. 


Gatuery 31 
American Art, XIX Century 
After the second war with England (1812-1814), the re- 
action against the mother country gave impetus to the 
growth of our national spirit. The new nation gradually 
took on a self-reliance in government, in industry, and in 


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economics, and this reaction, extending also to the fields of 
literature and art, gave birth to a movement in landscape 
painting quite independent of foreign influences. A large 
number of painters known as the Hudson River School, 
because they worked in the neighborhood of the Hudson 
River, approached the beauties of their native landscape 
with a reverent attitude, and despite their lack of technical 
ability and the over-abundance of detail in their topo- 
graphical works, the paintings of this early period possess 
a serious feeling for nature. The example of Sonnrac in 
this gallery suggests the range and limitations of these 
eatly landscape painters, among whom were Thomas 
Doughty, Ashur B. Durand and J. F. Kensett. 

A little later, as the country was developed and the won- 
ders of the Rocky Mountains became known, painters turned 
from the simple eastern landscape toward the grander and 
more impressive manifestations of nature. Albert Bierstadt, 
Thomas Moran, F. E. Church and Thomas Hill were of the 
group who sought their subject matter in the high peaks of 
the Rockies, the deep abysses of the Grand Canyon, the 
wonders of the Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, 
or themes of similar grandeur. Tuomas Hitu’s The Grand 
Canyon of the Yellowstone and F. E. Cuurcu’s Syria by the Sea are 
typical examples of these spectacular themes painted on large 
Canvases to convey an impression of the immensity of their 
subjects. (These paintings may be seen in our study rooms. ) 

GeorceE Inngss, the first landscape painter to get away 
from the panoramic or topographic type of picture, gaveim- 
petus to that fine portrayal of the mood of American land- 
scape which gives the work of our native painters a stand- 
ing comparable to that of any other nation. Inness was 
somewhat influenced by the Barbizon men; the spirit under- 
lying their work is found in his, but his interpretation is 
always essentially American. The two examples of his work 
in this gallery show different stages of his progress in the 
interpretation of American landscape, one The Hudson River 


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AUYUNLNASD ITIAX ‘LUV HSITONGA 


AMERICAN SECTION 


Valley, of his middle period, shows how he has grown be- 
yond the aims of the Hudson River School while still adher- 
ing somewhat to its forms; the other, The Apple Orchard, 
is a late example of his work in which his composition be- 
comes simplified, and the exactness of the scene gives way 
to a rendering of the color and romance of a particular 
American day. ALExANDER H. Wyant, who also had his 
beginnings in the Hudson River School but who became one 
of America’s most lyrical landscape painters, is represented 
by a small example of his work that still shows his early 
tendencies. 

After the middle of the nineteenth century most of the 
American art students felt the need of contact with the 
culture of Europe and the technical training to be had 
there. At first, it became the fashion for art students to go to 
Dusseldorf or Munich, as they were the art schools most in 
vogue in the middle of the nineteenth century. Frank Duven- 
eck, William M. Chase, Walter Shirlaw, Julius Rolshoven, 
John W. Alexander, to mention but a few, received their 
training in the Bavarian art schools, bringing back to Amer- 
ica the impetus that finds expression in that fine painters’ 
quality discernible in the work of so many of our American 
artists. In the two examples of WatTER SuiRLAw, the three 
paintings by Wittam M. Cuase and the small Head of a 
Man by Franx Duveneck, one can discern the brilliant 
technique and spirited modelling of this group of painters. 

Other painters, like Witt1am M. Hunt, Jonn Sincer 
SARGENT, JAMEs McNertt Wuistter, and Gari MELcHERs, 
received their training in Paris, which since the eighties has 
been the mecca of American art students. In the Ball Players 
will be found a typical example of Hunt. The Portrait of 
Robert Barr by Whistler, while only a sketch, shows this 
artist’s sensitiveness to delicate tonalities; the landscape, 
Home Fields, by John Singer Sargent, is a brilliant perform- 
ance in the presence of a subject that is particularly con- 
genial to him. 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


In this room will also be found Reading the Story of Oenone, a 
typical genre subject by Francis Davis Mixer, and the first 
picture owned by this Museum, and The Fog, an allegor- 
ical picture in delicate tones, by F. S. Church. One will 
also find in The Missing Vessel by Franx K. M. Renn, a 
marine which has been in the possession of the Museum 
since 1886, having been purchased from the proceeds of an 
exhibition held in Merrill Hall during that year. 


GALLERY 32 
Local Art 


In the gallery of local art one will find represented some 
twenty local painters whose works have been acquired for 
the permanent collection of the Art Institute. While the col- 
lection in this room is far from complete in its representa- 
tion, it will serve to suggest the artistic resources of this 
locality. Beginning on the east wall one finds an example of 
Witu1aM B. Coney, (1832-1913). Mr. Conely, havingchosen 
painting as a profession, studied at the Academy in New 
York and then returned to Detroit where he remained until 
his death. He opened the first art school in Detroit and 
because of his undraped models, an idea still new to the 
Middle West, suffered persecution at the hands of the 
prominent ministers and the police of this city. His work is 
varied but he excelled in still life and portraiture. Another 
portrait painter of this early period was Lewis T. Ives. 
Mr. Ives, a lawyer by profession, was assiduous in his 
devotion to painting, eventually giving his whole time 
to that art. He was regarded as the best portrait painter of 
his time in Detroit and received many commissions from lead- 
ing citizens. His portrait of William H. Brearley, through 
whose initiative the Detroit Museum of Art received its first 
impetus, hangs in this room. On the opposite wall will be 
seen a self-portrait of Percy Ivzs, the son of Lewis T. Ives, 
who also chose painting as a profession, studying abroad at 


72 


AMERICAN SECTION 


the Julien Academy and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. 
He has painted many portraits of prominent public men in 
this state. 

An example of Roserr Hopxin (1832-1909), a marine 
painter who enjoyed a wide popularity among Detroit 
collectors, is to be found. One can see in the Graveyard by 
the Sea that this native of Scotland who came to Detroit as a 
child by way of the slow sailing vessel, combines the quali- 
ties of a vigorous painter with a poetic outlook toward his 
favorite theme. He is almost entirely self taught, and in the 
painting of figures his lack of academic training is apparent. 
A Portrait of Robert Hopkin by Joserpu W. Gres, another long- 
time resident painter, hangs to the left of this picture. 

On the east wall is an example of Jutrus RotsHoven, The 
Refectory of San Damiano, Assisi. Mr. Rolshoven, born in 
Detroit in 1858, was one of that group of American painters 
who had their training in Munich, of which Frank Du- 
veneck and William M. Chase were the leading spirits. One 
will find here also The Vespers by Gart Metcuers which 
identifies this noted American artist with Detroit. Mr. 
Melchers was born in this city in 1860 and this example of 
his work, painted in 1888, showsto what degree of excellence 
he had attained even as a youth. Francis Petrus Pautus, 
born here in 1862, is represented by one of his market scenes 
of Bruges for which he is widely known. Lenpatu Pitts, 
whose mountain scene, Source of the Romanche, is also to be 
found here, is from one of Detroit’s old families and has 
devoted his life to painting and etching. He has long been 
a resident of Paris. 

Of a more recent time one will find a decorative figure 
piece and a still life subject by Roman Kryzanowskxy. Born 
in Russia in 1885, of a noble family, he came to Detroit as a 
mere youth. His early art training was received here, after 
which he studied abroad at Paris. He is particularly adept 
in the rendering of still life and in the decorative arrange- 
ment of his themes. Ernest Harrison Barnes, born in 


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A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


Portland, New York, in 1873, was for many years a resident 
of Ann Arbor, where he taught painting at the University of 
Michigan. His picture, A Shady Street, with its sunlight and 
shadow, is typical of the mood of American landscape to be 
found in all his works. Wr1t~t1am Greason, born in St 
Mary’s, in 1884, is apresent-day landscape painter of this city 
who enjoys a considerable reputation. As a variation from 
his landscape work he painted the metropolitan scene, 
D. A.C. at Twilight, with its interesting color and roof-line. 
Roy C. Gamsrz, whose picture, Freckles, is shown here, was 
born in Detroit in 1887 and has spent his whole life in this 
locality except for the years spent abroad in study. He enjoys 
a substantial portrait practice. Mrs. Iris ANDREWs MiLzER, 
whose Senorita Do-Do hangs on the west wall, studied under 
William M. Chase and became an illustrator of much 
promise. After her marriage, with the family cares it in- 
volved, she laid aside her painting for a number of years, only 
resuming the practice of her profession in recent times. She 
has also received many portrait commissions in this locality. 

Myron Bartow, born here in 1873, is one of that group 
of American artists living abroad of which Frederick C. 
Frieseke and Richard Miller are prominent. He developed a 
flat decorative style, dealing sympathetically with the in- 
cidents of peasant life and is known both in Europe and 
America for the style of picture which is here represented. 
CHARLES WALTENSPERGER, born here and for many years a 
resident painter, studied at the Detroit Museum of Art 
School, where he won the James E. Scripps Travelling Schol- 
atship for study abroad. His later work deals with genre sub- 
jects much in the style of the contemporary Dutch painters. 
KaTHERINE McEwen, proficient in the medium of water 
color, is represented by a vigorous Yukon Sunset. GLEN 
Tracy, represented by three vigorous water colors, was born 
in Detroit but now makes his home in Cincinnati. His 
pilgrimages in the interest of painting and drawing have 
taken him to many picturesque spots in his native land. 


74 


MODERN AMERICAN ART 


AMERICAN SECTION 


Examples of the work of some of the more progressive 
local men will be found in the galleries of modern art on the 
second floor,—John P. Wicker, Harry Smith, Jay Boorsma, 
Roger Davis (painters) and Samuel Cashwan (sculptor). 

The pottery in the case in the center of the room was made 
at the Pewabic Pottery and is a Detroit craft of which the 
city can well be proud. Begun more than twenty years ago 
by Mary Cask Perry (now Mrs. William B. Stratton), 
associated with the late Horace J. Caulkins, it has made 
remarkable progress both in regard to quality and quantity. 
There has always been about Mrs. Stratton’s work a 
definiteness of aim, a sure artistry and freedom of treat- 
ment that places her pottery with the finest America has 
produced. She has been most successful, perhaps, in the 
color, variety and beauty of her glazes. Besides her work in 
pottery proper, Mrs. Stratton has produced during the past 
few yeats a large output of glazed tile and ceramic decora- 
tions which, under commissions from leading architects, can 
be found in many churches and other public buildings 
throughout the United States, including our present build- 
ing, where her tile forms part of the decoration of a number 
of rooms: the two beautiful glazed tile niches at the entrance 
to the large temporary exhibition gallery, the tile decoration 
in the fountain in the garden court, and the risers of the 
stairs in the main auditorium being instances of her use of 
faience to a decorative end. 


GALLERY 33 
American Art, Last Quarter of XIX Century 


Galleries 33 and 34, devoted to American art of the last 
quarter of the nineteenth century, show to what degree 
American art has kept pace with the art of Europe. During 
this period American artists have turned largely to Paris 
for their training and inspiration. The romantic painting of 
the Barbizon school, therealismof Courbetand his followers, 
the splendid portraiture of Carolus Duran, Leon Bonnat and 


75 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


others, Impressionism with its heightened palette and its 
scientific knowledge of pure color, and Post-Impressionism 
as exemplified in Cezanne and his followers, all find a per- 
ceptible reaction in American painting. This does not mean, 
however, that the American painters are merely imitators of 
their French contemporaries. On the contrary, American art, 
in spite of the cosmopolitan age in which we live, when all 
world knowledge is available to all peoples, has developed 
a fine national spirit. Our painters have profited by the 
technical methods of their French brethren but their motifs 
and their point of view are singularly American. Many 
American painters during this period, feeling that all great 
aft is a native or inherent manifestation, have refused to pay 
homage to European culture and have worked out their 
salvation at home, feeling that in New York, Chicago and 
other large art centers, we now have academic instruction 
quite adequate to their needs. Beginning with Gallery 33, 
let us review the work of this recent period. 

Joun SinGER SARGENT, a cosmopolite who spent many of 
his years abroad but who retained his citizenship and 
American point of view, is a realist not only preeminent 
among the painters of the western world, but an artist who 
has inspired a number of his American contemporaries. In 
addition to the landscape, Home Fields, already referred to 
in Gallery 31, one of those spontaneous emanations from 
the brush of a man who has tasted all the success of achieve- 
ment in this field and has then turned to nature in holiday 
mood, will be found in gallery 34 a portrait of Mrs. Colin 
Hunter, a characteristic example of Sargent’s portraiture, 
signed and dated 1896. In the self portrait of ALBERT SmrrH, 
one can see this emulation of the spontaneity and the smart 
brush work of Sargent who was trained in the studios of 
Carolus Duran and whose style is founded on that of the 
great masters Frans Hals and Velasquez. Works in similar 
vein but somewhat less spectacular in performance are The 


76 


AMERICAN SECTION 


Milliner by Avpert Rosentuat, Crosslights by WiLLiaM 
SERGEANT Kenai, The Old Fashioned Gown and Afternoon 
Reflections by Ivan OLINsKY. 

Giovanni B. Troccoxi’s Lady with a White Lace Cap is a 
most pleasing interpretation of old age. There is so much 
character in this gentle woman who is quietly resting and 
dreaming of other days as the artist skillfully perpetuates 
her likeness on canvas. 

In Brrcr Harrison's Fifth Avenue at Twilight we have an 
example of American landscape painting dealing with the 
more sensitive and transitory facts of nature. The avenue 
of a great city is seen in the witching hour of twilight. 
Birge Harrison carries on to its ultimate the tradition which 
George Inness began, of portraying the tender and romantic 
moods of nature. 

How different the aim in Jonas Lin's Culebra Cut! Here is a 
realistic portrayal of one of the great American feats, in 
which this epicof American achievement is set forth with bald 
reality. Hzten M. Turner's The Flower Girl is a work that 
exemplifies impressionism as applied by one of our more 
prominent American women painters. With its broken 
color and heightened palette it shows how brilliant a picture 
of the last decade may become. Freperick C. FRIEsEKE’s 
The Blue Gown is impressionism used in a decorative manner 
quite his own. 

Plum Island by WautER Suirtaw is a good example of the 
water color medium, and The Almond Tree by Dopcr Mac- 
Knienr is a picture in full sunlight in which water color and 
pastel are brilliantly wedded. There are also two water 
colors by Cuartes H. Woopsury, the one of Mount Pelee 
in eruption being especially worthy of note. 

Three decorative sculptures adorn this room, two of 
which, Centaur and Dryad and Dancers and Gazelles ate by 
Pau Mansur and show the resourcefulness of this sculptor 
in the decorative use of sculpture. The panels and borders 
on the base of the Centaur and Dryad particularly exemplify 


17 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


the possibilities of low-relief decoration. Three other 
small bronzes by Paul Manship are to be found in Gallery 
35. Vis-a-vis with the Dancer and Gazelles is Brsstz PoTTER 
Vonnon’s Allegresse, a bronze scuplture which also shows 
the grace and rhythm of the plastic arts used as decoration. 


GALLERY 34 


American Art, Last Quarter XIX Century 
(Continued) 


In Gallery 34 are to be found J. Francis Murpny'’s 
Autumn, a picture which has much the same attitude toward 
nature as Corot, Daubigny or Dupré. Dwicut W. Trron’s 
Before Sunrise, June, and two other landscapes splendidly 
illustrate the quality of mood which Inness in an earlier 
day tried to attain. We turn from this with equal delight 
to the Unfolding Buds or The White Veil by Wittarp Met- 
caLF which, despite the high key and the material meth- 
ods of the impressionist, contain the same romantic out- 
look, the same love of nature in her more tender moods. 
Tuomas W. Dewi1ne’s The Recitation, showing two figures 
in a garden at twilight, and another similar picture near it 
has something of the same impulse of catching the more 
delicate and sensitive moods of nature and moulding them 
into a decorative theme. J. ALDEN Weir was invariably 
inspired by a strong aesthetic impulse, and A Follower 
of Grolier by this artist reveals his poignant search for 
artistic expression. Cuartes W. Hawtuorne’s Refining 
Oil, a combination of realism and decoration, shows fine 
character study in the old man and the head of the little 
boy. It has the fine painter’s quality of Chase with the 
addition of an arrangement of the color areas into a rhyth- 
mical decorative scheme. Garr Metcuers, of Detroit 
Nativity, is represented in our collection by six examples 
of his work. One in this room, The Wedding, is a work of 
his middle period; the other, Child with an Orange, is a 
recent work. Melchers is a profound thinker who always 


78 


(sddIs LSva UNV HIYON) LUNOO JO MIA 


AMERICAN SECTION 


seems to see through the soul of his sitters. His works 
are conceived in a vigorous way and his knowledge of 
his craft is always delightfully evidenced. 

Artuour B. Davizs is an independent artist who, living 
and working largely in retirement, has created a beautiful 
decorative style pregnant with mystery and significance. 
He is represented by Vision Antique, a classical landscape 
in tender green and blue tones peopled with ethereal nudes, a 
picture which shows his sensitiveness to pattern and delicacy 
of color. Robert SpENcER’s picture, On the Canal, New Hope, is 
an exceedingly interesting interpretation of an American 
theme. The squalid bit of life showing dilapidated houses 
bordering on a once active canal, becomes transformed 
through the temperament of the painter into a motif of 
splendor in which color and pattern play an important part, 
without losing its semblance of reality. Interesting figure 
subjects in high key by Ricnarp E. Mitier and Rosert 
Rer will also be found here. 

There are two bronze sculptures by Aucustus Sarnt- 
Gaupens: Amor Caritas, an adaptation of one of the ideal 
figures of the Morgan Tomb at Hartford, in high relief, the 
other in low relief, Homer Schiff Saint-Gaudens as a baby. 
The latter is a particularly fine example of the bas-relief 
work of this noted American master. 


GALLERY 35 
Modern American Art 


Entering Gallery 35 we find a combination of paintings, 
sculpture and the arts and crafts of our own day and it is 
here that the individuality of the artist and the independent 
spirit of American art are shown to the best advantage. 
Here will be found such landscapes as TwacHTMAN’s 
Pool, a picture fine in color and technically superb, possess- 
ing the spirit of a summer scene in a realistic yet subtle 
way; Surf and Rocks by Cuttpe Hassam, distinguished for 
its beautiful color, and an earlier example of his brush, 


79 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


Place Centrale and Fort Cabanas, Havana, painted in 1895; 
Danret Garser’s Vine Clad Trees, still another instance of an 
American painter who uses landscape as a decorative theme 
yet is keenly alive to the moods of nature; Epwarp W. 
ReprieLp’s Grey Days and Meadow Brook and Ernest Law- 
son’s Winter, which approach nature from the standpoint 
of the realist, giving vigorous pictures of American winter; 
Aesop's Garden by Kart ANDERSON, an idealized interpreta- 
tion of a garden theme; Girrorp Bzat’s Horse Mackerel, 
an incident of the sea which by its thoughtful design and 
simplicity and directness of narration reveals the restless 
forces of the ocean and those whose lives are shaped by 
close association with it; and Mauricz PRENDERGAST’S 
Landscape with Figures with its rhythmic grouping of 
women and children in a seaside park, and its interweaving 
of brilliant hues. 

Here, too, one will find figure painters of extraordinary 
ability. In the Fencing Master by Gart Metcuers we have 
the finest possible example of the sturdy art of this native 
son, while the nearby portraits of Mrs. Melchers, and 
Ik Marvel give an opportunity for further acquaintance 
with his work. Max Boum, who died in 1923, was among 
the foremost painters of his generation. Through the 
heavy impasto of his color and a technique that is ofttimes 
halting, the sheer force of his vision drove him on to 
successful achievement. Sea Babies is a monumental example 
of the artist in his happiest vein. The noble theme of mother- 
hood is here augmented by nobility of composition in which 
the large and simplified forms play an important part. 
Leorotp Sryrrert’s self portrait, not unlike the realism 
of Sargent, has a sure and spontaneous touch and is most 
interestingly composed. Frank W. Benson’s portrait of 
his daughter Elizabeth in a delightful summer setting 
out of doors, is chiefly concerned, as were the impression- 
ists, with the study of light; no dark shadows here, but a 
play of beautiful color throughout. Two examples of 


80 


AMERICAN SECTION 


“Mary Cassatt, both of them dealing with her favorite 
theme, motherhood, are to be found here, one of them a 
pastel, Femmes et Enfant, the other an oil, In the Garden. 
Rosert Henrr, represented by the Beach Hat, The Young 
Girl and Boy with the Plaid Scarf, is a painter who catches 
the character of his sitters and sets it down with a sureness 
which many painters emulate. Much of the pleasure in 
his works is in the brilliant color and in the sureness of 
his observation in catching the momentary aspects of his 
sitters. In The Forest Ranger by Ranpatt Davey we have a 
work similarly conceived, a work which catches character 
and sets it forth in a truthful manner, in this instance 
portraying a truly American type. 

Grorce Brttows’s A Day in June, awarded the Temple 
Gold Medal at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 
is a fine example of this eminent American painter. Bellows 
saw beauty in all the things about him. His everyday 
contacts furnished the themes for his brush as for his 
lithographs. His works, finely conceived and technically 
skillful, are always a commentary on our time which 
should give him a preeminent position among American 
painters as time goes on. Leon Krotz, one of the ablest 
of the younger men, is represented by a landscape with 
figures, In the Country, which affords an opportunity for 
the display of much brilliant color and interesting areas 
which fit together in a satisfying whole. It is a landscape 
of real distinction and one of the most stimulating pictures 
in our collection. An example of Gzorcz Luxs, The Three 
Top Sergeants, with its fervid and realistic portrayal of 
three amateur musicians, has about it a delightful spon- 
taneity and exuberance of life. 

If American art of our time has a parallel to the able 
gente painters of the seventeenth century or to Daumier 
of the century just past, it is in the work of JoHN SLoan, 
who puts his finger on the heart throbs of humanity in the 
highways and byways of a metropolitan city. McSorley’ s 


81 


A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS 


Bar, peopled by a few well chosen habitués, is such a 
picture. One can see the gentle wit with which the artist 
portrays his characters of common humanity. 

Among the sculptures in this gallery are such idealized 
works as The Genius of Immortality by IsaporE Konrt1, 
The Spartan Mother by Suerry E. Fry, The Cup Bearer by 
F. Tottzs CHAMBERLAIN, Aspiration by AtBIN Po.asex, 
Motherhood by Bzsstzr PotrerR Vonnou, and the Manships 
already referred to, which draw their inspiration from the 
traditions of the past. 

There are also a number of works by sculptors of strong 
individuality who, like the painters of our day, draw their 
inspiration from the life about them. Such a sculptor was 
Soton H. Borcium, who perpetuates the cowboy days of 
the Middle West in six bronzes in our collection. His 
study of the horse is particularly fine. His brother, Gutzon 
Boreivum, is also represented by three works: Ruskin, The 
Wonder of Motherhood, and The Wooing of the Centaur, all of 
them vigorous works. The Rigger, by Manonri YOuNG, 
shows the dignity and force of manual labor. Freprricx G. 
Rots has given us a life-like interpretation of polar bears. 

In the center of room 35 is the End of the Trail, a bronze 
sculpture by James Earre Fraser suggesting a dramatic 
incident of Indian life. 

In the cases will be found a few delightful interpretations 
of the dance in Matvina Horrman’s Pavlowa and Russian 
Dancers, in TrousetzKoy’s Lady Constance Richardson and . 
in ABASTENIA St. Leczr Exserwe’s Ragtime. One will also 
find in the animal sculptures, Colt, Fighting Goats, and 
Napoli, good examples of ANNA Hyatt Huntineton, who 
has made a real name for herself among American sculp- 
tors. Hunt Drepericn’s Cats and Jacos Epstrein’s Female 
Head represent sculptured works of more recent tendencies. 

In the cases below the windows are exhibited a number 
of objects of decorative arts by contemporary craftsmen; 
silver, enamels, pottery and porcelains, all fields in which 


82 


AMERICAN SECTION 


present-day American craftsmen take high rank. The 
Museum has felt that the finest work of our craftsmen should 
be given a place in the collections in the same manner as 
that of ancient times, and that one of the surest means of 
stimulating fine work in the liberal arts is to give it a place in 
museums. In these cases, therefore, will be found a selection 
of representative pieces by some of our best silver and 
enamel workers, and several groups of outstanding pottery 
and porcelain. 

Even from Colonial times the work of American silver- 
smiths has been able to hold its own with that of European 
countries,—as has been seen from the exhibition in the 
Colonial dining room,—and at the present day our silver 
craft is on a similar high level. Such pieces as the handsome 
pierced plate by Mary C. Knicur, the silver alms basin 
by Gzorce E. Germer, the baptismal font, a piece made 
in collaboration by James T. Wooxzy, ExizasetH CopELAND, 
I. KircuMayer, and the architects Cram and Fercuson, 
the fine vase by Artuur J. Stone, and the silver and 
enamel ink stand by Louis C. Tirrany, bear eloquent 
witness to this fact. 

An enamel placque by Epwarp F. CatpweE z is a particu- 
larly decorative bit of ornament, and with the silver and 
enamel box by Exizasrrn CopeLanp, gives an excellent 
idea of what our modern craftsmen are doing in this medium. 

The pottery in the case at the east end of the room is 
from the Durant kilns, established in 1911 at Bedford, 
New York, by Jeanne Durant Rice and Leon Volkmar. 
These kilns have been especially successful in the colors 
they have been able to secure, some of the best of which 
are Persian blue, aubergine, and Chinese yellow. 

The Rosineau porcelain in the case at the other end of 
the room is quite another type of the potter’s art. These 
exquisite vases, many of them of the most diminutive size, 
are made of native materials, glazed with mat, semi-mat 
or crystalline glazes and fired at 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. 


83 


LOCATIONS 


GALLERIES oF Mopsrn Art, on the second floor, can be 
reached by the stairway at the end of the garden court or by 
the stairway adjacent to Gallery 17. These galleries contain 
paintings, sculpture and decorative arts representative of the 
most modern movements in art from various countries: 
America, France, England, Germany, Russia, etc. 


Trxtite Coxection, the large north gallery at the front 
of the building on the ground floor (use stairway at the 
left of main entrance), contains exhibits of textiles, em- 
broideries and laces. Here framed textiles are accessible to 
students. 


Print CoLLECTION, containing engravings, wood cuts, 
etchings and drawings of all periods will be found in the 
south end of the building on the ground floor (use stair- 
way at the right of main entrance), by way of the Roman- 
esque Hall and the Prehistoric Gallery. 


Tue Lisrary, on the ground floor (use staircase at the 
right of main entrance), containing reference books on the 
fine atts, sales catalogues, publications of the leading art 
museums, periodicals, photographs and lantern slides, is 
available for study purposes during the museum’s regular 


hours. 
* * * 


Srupy Rooms (in pteparation) of metal work, furniture 
and ceramics, available for research purposes, will be found 
on the ground floor in five galleries adjacent to the Print 
Room and the Northern Romanesque Hall. These are for the 
special use of students and designers and are accessible 
during the museum’s regular hours upon application at 


the information desk. 
84 


LOCATIONS 


Tur Trea Room, adjacent to the Romanesque Hall (use 
staircase at the right of entrance), will be open regularly 
from 12 to 2 p. m. The tea room service will also be available 
to study clubs or other groups for special service upon 
application. 


85 


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